Green Spider
by gigatronthepwn
Summary: One gloomy afternoon, Soren finds a strange spider in his office... Rated Mature for Mild Language, Gory Violence, and Some Disturbing Content. Follows my previous fics Satano-Snakes and Iceheart. Some romance in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

_Good lord, another one? Wasn't Gigatron finally finished with _Fire Emblem_? Is there still monster-ridden ground for him to tread here? Sadly, it seems so. This one is called _Green Spider_, continuing his tradition of names that are either silly, such as the dubiously re-titled _Satano-Snakes _(formally known as _Basilisk's Reign) _or names that are obscenely cryptic, such as the misleadingly titled _Iceheart_, which Gigatron insists will NOT be renamed _Dino Emblem.

_So enjoy _Green Spider, _unless you have arachnophobia, in which case you should run the hell away, because knowing Gigatron there will be large spiders attempting to eat people, most likely while spouting the Medieval equivalent of Audrey 2's jive talk from _Little Shop of Horrors. _But you should read _Satano-Snakes _and then _Iceheart _before you read _Green Spider _if you have not done so already._

-Lethe

* * *

The long, golden arms of the sun's rays spread their warming embrace over Daein. But this Daein was not as it once was; after the heart-shaped wall of ice in the mountainside was melt a year ago, the once snow-covered, wintry Daein was replaced by a warm, humid marsh, long, thin rivers flowing in between mangrove forests. No more were the landslides and hail storms; typhoons and heavy downpours of rain were the natural disasters residents had to be wary of now. The sandy wasteland once known as the Desert of Death was now the Bog of Death; its dust and boulders gone, deep, water-filled sinkholes and muddy patches of knee-high swamp grass in their stead.

And yet, despite all this new water and shade, it was still a harsh, hot climate. Something about this seemed odd to Nailah as she sat cross-legged on top of one of the few moss-covered boulders that had yet to sink into the soft ground, one more convenient place to sit and rest lost forever to the murk of the Bog of Death. The Queen of Wolves was deep in thought, not only about the strangeness of there being no way to cool down in the heat of this area.

_If that was the case, it seems fortunate Michiah had finished that monster off before we could get there, _Nailah thought as she looked down into the tall grass around her. The cave had seemed such an easy and risk-free way to kill the cruel Lizard King, Vazelesqos. It did, until Shyala returned to her queen with this disturbing new report.

There was an uncharacteristic fear in the eyes of the young she-wolf as she told Nailah of the horrors of the very same gaping pit in the cave's centre the Wolf Queen and her comrades had been instructed to drop the Lizard King into. As calm as Shyala looked and spoke, that hint of terror was visible, however faintly, in her eyes and could be picked up in her scent. She spoke of the ancient remains of at least a hundred creatures, beorc, laguz, and simple animal among them, piled in a massive heap at the bottom of the pit, all of them covered in a strange, silky material.

How Shyala had discovered this without going into the pit herself, she did not explain, but the fear radiating from her told Nailah she was not lying. Shyala was almost always calm and composed, her golden eyes showing little emotion, let alone deathly fright. What had Iceheart played at, telling Nailah to drop Vazelesqos into this great open grave? As the Wolf Queen stared into the grass, she felt a strange feeling of unease crawling up her spine.

A dragon; yes, a great and mighty dragon preparing to spit his raging flames at the horde of enemies rushing at him. This was the only thing Soren could compare his growing irritation to as he sat in his office. He was trying to keep track of the mess hall's supplies. But he couldn't. He simply couldn't, knowing that they were out there, in each other's embrace, their love hidden from all but him. He had just counted the supplied himself after breakfast. He knew how many eggs there were. But he couldn't move his numb hand. Soren knew full well that Ike and Lethe out outside, on the branch on that damned tree, hidden by the leaves, holding one another, madly in love.

Soren's left eye twitched slightly. He had seen them in this process once before. First Ike would run his hand through Lethe's ginger hair. _The dragon snorted and spread his wings._

The ebony cloaked sage exhaled harshly as his hand fell into his hands. Then Lethe would purr, oh how she would purr- Soren would never understand how her purring never seemed to bother Ike. _The dragon stamped his feet and growled with great fury and wrath, a final warning before his attack._

Soren groaned as his eyes shut tightly. And then the two lovers would nuzzle each other with their noses, giggling and chortling. _The dragon's mouth opened into a flaming pit of death, mighty red fire exploding from his maw!_

The office had no windows and was lightened only by a few candles spread around Soren's desk. The sage's eyes open a bit. He stared down at his desk, made of thick oak wood, through his fingers. His mind was a bubbling fit filled with a venomous solution formed from mixing contempt with confusion and rage. What did Ike see in that beast, that _sub-human_, that drew him to her? What was it about her that attracted him so? Not even Soren's calculating and brilliant mind could figure it out even the slightest. It was one of the few things that were a mystery to him.

Soren looked up, his eyes scanning the office. He noticed that he was nearly out of ink in the small black urn on his desk in which the writing quill rested. Where had he put the larger refill container? As he looked, something else caught his eye; his gaze had wandered up to the ceiling, more specifically, to the far right corner of the ceiling directly opposite of his desk, for whatever reason. There, he saw something that interested him greatly.

A spider sat in a web spread over the corner. This arachnid was odd, however; its legs were long, yet thick like a man's fingers. It was about the size of a child's hand, its emerald green colour glowing in the dark, its six glowering sapphire eyes peering at the sage through the dark. Its legs twitched as if it were walking on the spot for a moment. It seemed to cock its head like a curious dog. It made faint chirping noises as it became still. This was a most bizarre creature.

For a moment Soren was compelled to summon a gust of wind from a magic tome and crush the spider with a book; then he thought perhaps he could coax it down and release it outside. Finally, he decided to leave the spider be; perhaps he could observe and study it. If nothing else, it would keep his mind off of the two lovers outside in the forest, unknowingly driving the sage mad.

* * *

_I think we can all tell where this is going. Hopefully there'll be no telekinetic arachnids demanding that Soren "Feed me! Feed me all night lo-ong!"_

-Lethe

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

The spider moved infrequently; no longer did it cock its head or twitch its fat legs

The spider moved infrequently; no longer did it cock its head or twitch its fat legs. Sometimes it would crawl down from its web and scuttle across the office floor. There it would roam around the room, its emerald hide always glowering in the almost perfect darkness. Observing and studying the spider had become something of a pastime for Soren; not that he especially needed it to take his mind off more unsettling matters now. Lethe had returned to Gallia now, so Ike could no longer cavort with her.

The spider scuttled around the wood boards making up the floor, cloaked in a darkness that would be all-consuming if not for the dim flames of the candles fighting valiantly- but almost in vain- against the black. It still at times made the clicking and chattering, but it was mostly silent. There were times when its many eyes seemed to look right into Soren's. There was an aura of both depressing, unsettling and an odd sense of intrigue about this creature. Soren often jotted notes about its bizarre appearance and behaviour down in his spare time, which he had quite a bit of as of late.

The headquarters of the Greil Mercenaries seemed so empty now; many former members of the company had either died or left for whatever reason. Rhys, the former bishop, whose job it was to heal those wounded in battle, had left to run an orphanage. Oscar, a skilled horseman and the company's primary cook, took leave in order to provide food for Rhys's orphanage. Mia, a mistress of the sword, put her blade to rest when she, too left to help care for the orphans. Crimea seemed to have no end of orphans for this trio to care for.

Then there was Shinon, who once was the company's skilled sniper, before he perished three years ago in what was now known as the "Cockatrice Incident", in which a plague of basilisks ravaged Tellius. However, no matter how great these losses were, no matter how much they affected those remaining in the company, the company was still able to function properly and efficiently both on the battlefield and at home. Mist, Ike's younger sister, was quite handy with a healing staff, was a skilled chief, and was well-trained by her brother in swordsmanship; she alone was a decent replacement for Oscar, Rhys, and Mia. Also there to help was Rolf, Oscar's kid brother, who trained under Shinon and now was a highly skilled archer. The Greil Mercenaries was still running smoothly indeed, and the decrease in active members made keeping track of everything much easier for Soren.

The sage now spent his days in his office, quickly finishing any paperwork- and even though the amount of it had decreased, there was still much of it to do- only to sit idly at his desk and wait until something happened that would force him out of the dark, isolated room. The spider's sudden appearance last night helped Soren pass the long hours, which he once spent either staring at a wall or ceiling or reading one of the many books and scrolls in the shelves lined against the walls; all of these texts he had read already at least ten times. The loneliness, boredom, and isolation of the office did not bother Soren. Even if he did suffer from a lack of companionship, here was the spider to fix all of that. Already he thought of it as something of a pet.

A pet? That was a bit crude; a companion was less demeaning. Demeaning a spider? _Perhaps I do suffer from a lack of companionship, _thought Soren. The confirmation was when he decided the spider should have a name. But what? The sage thought for a moment. Unsurprisingly, given how often he read the last interesting book in his library, he first delved deep into his memory, into his recollection of _Heathen Gods of the Old Chaos_. There, in that text that described the pagan deities worshipped by the hellish creatures that inhabited the world before the goddess Ashera purged them and replaced that nightmarish plain with a new realm, full of life and hope, the first name that presented itself to Soren was Brakawl.

Brakawl was the demon god of envy, of greed, of all things hateful and deceitful. He was a Shapeshifter, who took great pleasure in trickery and theft. He could take many forms, most notably a spider and a fox. It was once thought that foxes were the spawn of Brakawl, the only part left of him on this mortal plain after Ashera defeated him and his kin. If Soren were not more logical he'd have believed this; he never liked foxes anyhow. The spider's name was decided: Brakawl.

Of course, what Soren was doing here was quite silly; an odd spider had wandered into his office and he was obsessing over it, watching it's every move and even naming it as if it were a pet. It was ludicrous. Utterly ridiculous.

However, this thought had not crossed Soren's mind.

* * *

_If you can't tell where this is going, you are a retard._

-Lethe


	3. Chapter 3

As like Daein, Begnion had been drastically changed as well. The once mighty empire lay in ruin. Since the Lizards came and ravaged the continent, they annihilated Begnion's mighty armies and pillaged the formally proud cities. Then, even once they were driven out, the weakened Begnion reportedly still had intentions of enslaving Daein and defeating the Laguz Alliance. Whether they truly had intentions of doing that was unknown, nor did it even matter; Gallia and Daein both sent in sizable fighting forces to eliminate what was left of Begnion's military and leave what was once the grandest nation in Tellius in poverty and fear. The Begnionions considered themselves very fortunate no one decided to enslave them as they had the Daeins.

Most of the ruined empire's people had been humbled and no longer desired violence. But there were some still craving victory and dominance. The Helren Woods had once been a hatchery of the Lizards; dozens of smiled-covered eggs, nearly as tall as long sword was long, once littered the dark, misty trees. One of the last crusades of the Begnion army was to destroy this hatchery. Now the forest was but fuel for a maddened purpose. Many trees had already been cut down for this purpose, and many more would be before the purpose was fulfilled.

A great beast of wood and iron was soon to be born here; a weapon unlike anything Tellius had ever seen. It would be able to blast a hole clear through a castle wall. It would be fuelled and strengthened by magic. Its might would crush all who opposed it. This was Zelgius's vision. The enemies of Begnion would pay dearly. First he would hunt down and finish off whatever Lizards might still defile this nation. Then he would use this weapon to bring Daein back under Begnion's rule. After that, Gallia, Phoenicis, and Kilvas would fall, in that order.

Zelgius was once a man of great honour and nobility. He was one of Begnion's most favoured war heroes. He had nothing against Daein or the laguz; when he fought Daein four years ago during King Ashnard's reign of terror, he was only doing it for the benefit of Tellius. Only a year ago when Begnion when he led armies against the Laguz Allegiance it still wasn't anything personal; he was only defending Begnion. Then came the Lizards. They razed Begnion to the ground and slaughtered every man, woman, and child they encountered. It was one thing to see a man killed by a spear or a Gallian's claws; contrary to popular belief, at least the Gallian beasts didn't eat the people they killed. But it was another thing entirely to see a man torn apart and then feasted upon while still clinging to life by a hungry raptor. Though Zelgius survived and led what little army Begnion had left to victory, even his ironclad nerves were frayed.

He was, however, still quite sane. It would take even more than the horrors of that war to drive the brave and collected Zelgius to madness. No, it was something else that drove him to insanity. What that something was, no one knew. Something snapped inside the once great Zelgius and turned him into a war-mongering madman, who intended to construct a superweapon and conquer half of Tellius. What made this all the worse was that dozens of soldiers still followed and trusted him utterly.

Zelgius oversaw the construction of his war machine with vigilant, bloodshot eyes. Black bags hung under his eyes; he hadn't slept since progress on the weapon had begun seven weeks ago. His normally neat black hair was less well-tended to now; it had grown down to his shoulders and was twisted and frizzled. He once never allowed himself to have facial hair; now a short beard, which was oddly tidier than his hair, grew from his face. Other than his instantly recognizable scarlet armour with its gold frame, now covered in dents and scratches from the Lizards, Zelgius was unrecognizable. He had not washed the blood or previous battles off of his sword, leaving grimy rust on the edge of the blade. Whatever had pushed him into this pit of madness had done an excellent job of it.

The weapon so far was only a thirty foot by twenty-five foot wooden frame covered in iron armour. Under this frame were a dozen logs lined up in a row, down on their sides, forming treads. Right now some of the workers were constructing what seemed to be a giant bow, while others whittled large branches into long, thick shafts, which were then tipped with massive steel arrowheads. A mage wandered through the rows of completed arrows, sticking amulets of some sort into small indents just under the arrowheads and then reciting a chant of some sort. One could certainly come up with a few decent guesses as to what this weapon might be upon completion. One could also tell that it would likely not disappoint Zelgius with its destructive power.

"You can't honestly tell that's all you did with him!"

"C'mon, tell us!"

"That's all we did. I'd thank you to stop harassing me about it."

It escaped Lethe why her sisters felt they absolute had to interrogate her about her stay with Ike. Even Lamia, usually anti-social enough to make Lethe look like the social butterfly of the three, now had a giggling curiosity. True, the eldest of the three was not telling her younger sisters of what she truly was doing with Ike, but it would benefit all three of them if she didn't relinquish this information.

"You didn't go too hard on him, did you?" Lyre cackled.

"Yeah, you didn't hurt him, right?" added Lamia.

"Both of you stop it! Nothing happened. I was there on assignment," Lethe defended herself.

"What kind of assignment?" questioned Lamia, her eyes narrowed seductively.

"Surveillance, assigned by His Majesty!" Lethe answered sharply.

"Surveillance of what, might I ask?" asked Lyre, a certain subtlety in her voice.

"Shut up. Both of you. _Now,_" snapped the oldest sibling. The other two suppressed giggles and desisted. But Lethe knew in an hour or so they'd be doing it again. Last night she had left the mercenary headquarters to begin her return to Gallia. She only got about a mile or so before Lethe's sisters found her and began nagging about what had happened between her and Ike. This went on for hours and now Lethe felt as if she might snap and beat them both into the ground at any moment. They were approaching the Crimea-Gallia border now. The jungle of their homeland could be seen in the distance. So far as Lethe was considered, this trek couldn't end soon enough.

There was of course, another thing Lethe wouldn't dare tell anyone. At least, not until the time was right.

* * *

_Ooooh, mysterious! Notice how every major character so far seems to have a secret of some kind. Soren's secret is that he has a pet spider monster. Zelgius's secret is what truly drove him bonkers. The spider's secret is its existence as a whole. Lethe's secret is so secretive we've yet to discover what it is. Gigatron has two most secretive secrets; Why he isn't renaming _Iceheart _as _Dino Emblem_, and if this fic is meant to be taken seriously. _

-Ranulf


	4. Chapter 4

"Are those really the precautions we'll have to take?"

"If it truly is as serious as King Phoenicis implies, we may have to."

"In that case," said Nailah as she watched a large gecko climb out of the murky green swamp water and onto a moss-covered rock, "I'll have you go to Crimea at tomorrow's dawn."

Shyala looked slightly nervous, her golden eyes narrowing slightly. "Alone? You've never met these mercenaries yourself, have you? How sure are you they'll accept me into their headquarters? Not to insult your reasoning, of course, your majesty..."

Indeed, Nailah had never met the Greil Mercenaries before. In fact, had it not been for Tibarn informing her of them when he came to bog not long ago to discuss this most urgent matter, the Wolf Queen might not have ever have heard of them at all. It didn't help that Shyala didn't exactly look like the type who could easily be trusted utterly; the young she-wolf's ochre hair was scraggly and long, perhaps even longer and more unkempt than Nailah's; why she never seemed to groom herself properly was anyone's guess. She covered herself almost entirely, only her head and feet bare, with a thick fur poncho; what she wore under that was also anyone's guess. Her eyes were almost always half-closed, as if she were either trying to intimidate whosoever looked into them or badly sleep-deprived. Shyala seemed to be quite a shady character indeed, but over the years of unwavering loyalty Nailah knew she could be trusted with this task.

"Perhaps you could have one of my associates who are more familiar with them to accompany you," Nailah suggested.

"That sounds reasonable. Who might this accomplice be?" asked Shyala.

"I know a Gallian general who goes by the name of Lethe. I met her during the Lizard's invasion of the continent. We're not exactly close friends, but we have met a time or two and she may be willing to help us."

Lethe was willing to help. She was not, however, willing to accompany Shyala herself. Instead, here Shyala was, en route to the headquarters of the Greil Mercenaries, galloping through the sea of trees surrounding Gallia as fast as she could, trying desperately to escape her so-called accomplice, whom she dreaded far more than any discrimination from the mercenaries.

"Stop!" she could here Lethe's youngest sister Lamia pleading behind her, "Wait up!" _Goddess no I won't wait up, _thought Shyala irritably as she sped along. _If I do you'll drive me mad and since Ike probably won't allow a madwoman dragging a corpse behind her into his HQ, the mission will be a failure. _Judging by Lamia's many ignorant questions earlier, she didn't even seem to know the importance of this operation.

"Where are we going?" the cat asked.

"Crimea," Shyala replied.

"I know, but where in Crimea?" Lamia seemed to be trying to sound as snobby as possible.

"... It was said more than once that we're going to the headquarters of the Greil Mercenaries."

"What are we going there for?"

"We're to infiltrate the headquarters; at first, through persuasion, and if that fails, stealth. I've got a plan to get in if the former doesn't work out."

"Why do we need to get in?"

"...We explained that in great detail, Lamia."

The curly-haired little cat looked as if she were on the verge of exploding. "My name is _Lyre!_"

"Not according to your sister whose name is Lyre," Shyala retorted.

"But, but, I'm... HSSSSS!"

"That's the most intelligent thing I've heard you say."

"How much longer, then?"

"I'm not sure when you'll be arriving, but I'd rather get there sooner."

"What? Why?!"

Shyala had already gone into wolf form and ran on ahead.

Now, the scent of beorc was beginning to become slightly detectable on the wind. Shyala figured she was nearing her destination. It didn't really matter to her if Lamia ever managed to catch up; the operation would likely go much more smoothly without that loud-mouthed little braggart hissing at everything that moved. She'd probably ruin the whole thing, even when they had to resort to stealthy infiltration; for a cat, Lamia was disturbingly clumsy. General Lethe couldn't have been overly fond of the Wolf Queen to assign this inept knave to assist Shyala.

Soren only thought hard; he could never give anything merely a passing thought. As a tactician, when all the company triumphed or failed, lived or died by his decisions, every little detail of the enemy, the battlefield, everything, had to be thoroughly analyzed. But the longest Soren had thought in a long time was about this spider. It never ate. It rarely moved. It never even chirped or twitched as it once had. All it ever seemed to do was sit in its web and stare down at him. It was quite unnerving, the feeling of its four blue eyes boring a hole in his skull as he did paperwork in the dark.

But as he sat at his desk late one night, he began to think about something even harder than he'd thought about the spider, something that unnerved him, again, even more than the arachnid's unblinking vigil. Though Lethe was gone, her presence still seemed to linger on Ike like an ever lustful wraith, intent on consuming the man with desire. The thought of a great man like that being so easily infatuated with that Gallian hairball drove a shiver like that a sudden blast of icy wind would bring on up Soren's spine. At one point in time the sage was sure it was but a temporary relationship both would soon move on from and forget about. Now it was apparent the two were truly deeply in love; or at least, Ike was, and Lethe was merely toying with him. It was because of things like this that Soren had always been more of a dog person.

There was also one much more minor issue that made Soren so opposed to the two seeing each other. Regardless of race, at least Ike had a lover. This had never bothered Soren until recently. Why it suddenly became a concern was a mystery, but for whatever reason, the sage suddenly felt something he had never felt before, a sin which he had never suffered until now, a feeling that he forgot could destroy men; envy.

Soren didn't notice the spider slowly growing larger behind him.


	5. Chapter 5

At last, it was nearly done.

Zelgius's superweapon was at last complete. It took months of hard labour, but at last it was finished. The sages were nearly complete with their duties. They stood in a wide oval around the contraption, chanting hymns of forgotten magic- rightfully so. This magic was ancient; some said it existed even before the Goddess. Few knew how to command it; those who did often wished they didn't. Its power was both unpredictable and uncontrollable. As Zelgius watched the process, he could not sense the fear radiating from all of the chanting sages.

The earth inside the circle began to darken and dry up into cracked stone. Tendrils of dark energy seeped out of the crevices and stabbed into the wood of the monster of wood, steel, and magic they surrounded. The machine glowed a deep blue as the tendrils pulsated, as if they pumping something into it. The voices of the sages wavered slightly as they came to the climax of their chant. A thin smile spread across Zelgius's lips. He had no idea what kind of power he was unleashing.

A humming noise, soft and silent at first, became audible. Slowly, it grew louder and deeper. The tendrils retreated back into the earth. One of the sages, mad with fear, ran screaming from the circle. What looked like black fire burst forth with a roar from the cracks in the dried earth. Now all of the sages ran for their lives. The war machine returned to its original colour as it rocked back and forth as if something with great strength was shaking it. In the twilight that came before night it still seemed to glow, although now that glow was a bright red.

The weapon was a huge ballista mounted on a frame that moved through use of the rolling treads on its underside. A tall, erect net, also held together by a wooden frame, was attached to the back of the ballista and held dozens of arrows, all imbued with some kind of magic; this was deliberate, as every species of laguz was vulnerable to a different kind of magic. Beasts were vulnerable to fire, birds to wind, dragons to thunder, and lizards to light. The heads of the arrows glowered red, white, yellow, or green, depending on what magic they were empowered with. The machine was covered in huge chunks of steel armour, around the ballista, around the treads, on the ballista and its ammunition hold. The machine was twenty-five feet long, fifteen feet tall, and weighed at least a dozen or so tonnes; it was huge, it was powerful, it was everything Zelgius wanted it to be.

But there was still one test to be taken.

Zelgius approached the monster of wood and metal. From now he had hidden from his own creation behind a wall of foot soldiers, observing the progress from atop a steep hill. He did not stumble or trip while descending the hill. He pushed roughly past the soldiers. He stood before his weapon, marvelling at its size and shape. With this, he would crush any who opposed him. But there was still that one final test. Just as the sages had, Zelgius chanted a spell of old in a forgotten tongue. He did this for a few minutes. Through the soldiers behind him unnerve and fear spread like wild fire. Finally, Zelgius spoke in a language they could understand.

"I call you now from the dark abyss; with you, I shall send my enemies into the darkness where they belong. We shall purge this land of evil, you and I," Zelgius rasped in a voice hoarse from disuse. "Steelgod, ARISE!"

The war machine shook more violently, making loud guttural noises. Then the plates of armour began to shift around and join together. Then the linked pieces of steel slammed down into the ground. The treads split in half down the middle and rolled out from under the frame, more steel connecting to them. More steel filled the void as the frame contorted into a sort of hourglass shape. Then it stood up. Where there once sat a war machine there now stood a giant man of metal and wood. It was nearly fifty feet tall, a small square head of iron decorated by two beady eyes glowing bright yellow in between its broad wooden shoulders. The ballista was mounted on the left forearm. All the soldiers stared in wonder and awe and shock. Zelgius only smiled a wide, mad smile; the project was a success. Steelgod was ready.

Brakawl had grown.

Soren did not know how it had so much in such a short period of time; just yesterday it was no bigger than a child's hand, as usual. But now it was the size of a small dog. Its legs had gotten longer and thinner, and its eyes were now a shade of purple. But its exoskeleton was still a glowing emerald green. It sat in its web, which had also expanded so much that it covered nearly the entire northern wall of Soren's office, staring intently at the sage, not moving or making any sound. It was those violet eyes leering at him on that green mass of legs and fangs that Soren awoke to; he had fallen asleep doing paperwork the previous night.

Slowly Soren got up out of the desk chair and approached the bookshelf, keeping his gaze fixed on the monstrous arachnid. It kept its vigil on him, its head turning slowly, noiselessly to follow him. The sage pulled _Heathen Gods of the Old Chaos _off the shelf, glancing only momentarily to ensure he was grabbing the right book. Backing quickly away from Brakawl, he turned to the section on the spider's namesake.

"Brakawl fed on the negative emotions of man, such as greed, fear, and most especially, envy. First he took a new form after his old guise was exhausted and found a troubled individual to feed upon. As he fed, he grew larger and fiercer."

Soren slowly closed the book and set it down on his desk. He stared at the spider, which stared back. Could he possibly have an ancient heathen god right there in his own office? No, it couldn't be; he felt no greed nor fear nor envy, not now and not when the creature first appeared a few days ago. _This is merely a very bizarre coincidence, _Soren assured himself. It had to be; this spider was just a freak of nature. Ashera had wiped out all of the old demon gods many thousands of years ago, Brakawl included. This was just a very, very odd spider.

Still, its glaring violet eyes and disturbing size forced Soren into such a feeling of unease that he had to leave his office. _Just an odd spider, _he kept telling himself. _Just a very, very odd spider… _The sun was only just rising now, he noticed._ I wonder what's for breakfast._


	6. Chapter 6

I'm back from my long hiatus- if only for a moment

I'm back from my long hiatus- if only for a moment. See, I'm taking a break from fic writing for a few months, to rest, gain inspiration, and work on original projects. However, I am still a participating member of this site, reading and reviewing the fics of others; I'm just not submitting my own for a while. I wrote this chapter and put it up here to let everyone know that I haven't left you, I'm just away for a bit.

Nevertheless, here's the sixth chapter of Green Spider. If you take the time to read it, please leave a review and tell me about any grammatical errors you find, and as always, constructive criticism is always welcome.

* * *

Brakawl was gone.

There was no sign of the spider; it had simply disappeared. However, there was definitely sign that it had been there. The entire office, the desk, the walls, the bookshelves, everything was coated in a fine layer of cobwebs. How could it have done all this in the half hour Soren was absent for breakfast? Had it gone through another growth spurt? If so, how big was it now? Soren remembered the unwavering, unblinking stare of the spider; would this creature be dangerous at a large size? Was it venomous? Would it relish the taste of human blood?

Soren's heart started to race. His palms became sweaty. _No, calm down. Assess the situation. It can't have gone too far. And if it is a massive beast of death now, someone would have noticed a giant spider lurking around the property. _This thought reassured the sage little. If it was a "massive beast of death", loss of life to it was practically inevitability. Ike had to be warned.

But wait; if Soren went to Ike claiming that a giant spider might be stalking the grounds that would beg many questions:

"Where might this spider have come from?"

"How did it become so large?"

"Are you sure it's dangerous?"

"What are you smoking?"

And then there was the one inquiry Soren dreaded the most: "Did you perhaps have something to do with the creation or unleashing of this creature?"

To that, Soren would have to reply, "Quite possibly." But regardless of consequences, someone had to be warned! Soren was not known to lie; in fact, his reputation was more akin to "brutal honesty". His claims would be believed.

He whipped around and grabbed for the doorknob- the knob of the door leaving the office. Soren had not closed this door when he came in, he was sure of that. In his alarm he must not have noticed it closing. He turned the knob to open and leave. There was just one simple complication; the knob would not turn. It was stuck. Soren tried again and again to open the door, to no avail. He was trapped! Something had locked him in!

So far as Soren could see, he had only he own carelessness to blame. All he could do now was dig one of his winds tomes out from under the mess of webbing and blow the door down. Soren then came to realize that he truly had a problem when he scoured the entire room; and yet, no tomes he could find. He really was trapped. No level of carelessness could cause this, not under such organized circumstances as Soren kept his office. This was something more malevolent! Foul play, arson! But on who's part?

_Perhaps it was... _No, that was nonsense, and nonsense was not something that could be allowed now. For a moment, Soren considered that perhaps the spider had some kind of malevolent intelligence. Its unending gaze betrayed neither emotion nor intelligence. But then again, given the situation perhaps the idea was not as foolish as it at first seemed. Maybe the spider's intellect grew with its size? Maybe it was always highly intelligent and it was planning something this whole time? Soren would normally have scolded himself for considering such lunacy, but now such thoughts seemed almost plausible.

Thousands of Begnion soldiers now marched across the expansive desert, from their ruined homeland to Daein. Around them were the ruins of both the old Laguz Emancipation Army camps, destroyed during the events of the Cockatrice incident, and of many hamlets and camps, wiped off of the earth by the Lizard hordes. At the front of the force was Zelgius atop a sorrel steed- which was in much better shape than its rider- and behind him was Steelgod, a mass of wood and metal rolling forward by its own will and power. Then the ballista mounted atop the frame and treads turned towards the west, and suddenly changed its course, rolling off in that direction.

Zelgius had not given any orders or indication for any of his men, or machines, to head off to the west. Something was clearly amiss. His blank stare wandered to the contraption as it abandoned them. In his deranged mind Zelgius never considered that Steelgod might have been intelligent or sentient; it was simply a weapon to be used against his enemies. He stopped the marching army and called forth his most trusted general, Karl.

"Something's wrong with the weapon," Zelgius announced to Karl.

"You did not command it to do that yourself?" asked the short, stocky man clad in heavy crimson armor.

"It seems Steelgod is rather disobedient. Or rather, overeager to win this war and crush entire armies beneath its might force. The small and weak Daein would not be sufficient for it, no. It is going east, to Crimea, where many soldiers will come to face it; a worthy challenge." Zelgius seemed oblivious to the many strange looks being cast in his direction after he came to this conclusion. "I am going after the weapon. I want six good, strong men to accompany me. Whoever is up to the task, come forward."

* * *

_Good lord, look who's back. For a while I wasn't sure if I missed Gigatron or if I was glad to be rid of him. Now I'm not sure if I want to be rid of him or if I'm indifferent to his return. I'll be able to decide that during the next few weeks, when he'll again be absent before another triumphant return that no one will notice. _

-Lethe


	7. Chapter 7

I need to get some kind of system going so I can update more consistently. Maybe an update a week or something like that? I'd think it's a bit frustrating to only have to wait a couple days for a fic to be updated once, but then the next update doesn't come for two weeks or more. I'll try and work some kind of system out. Until then, enjoy, and if you take the time to read, please leave a review.

* * *

The Crimean forest was pleasant enough; quiet save for the chirping of birds and the rustling a tree branches in the wind, the sweet aromas of the flowers and berry-filled bushes filling the air. The sun was shining brightly with few clouds in the sky. And yet, both Shyala and Lamia sensed something… odd. There was no other word to describe it. This anomaly they felt in the air and on the wind was simply and plainly odd.

One thing Lamia had working to her advantage, Shyala found, was her senses. Her sight, smell, and hearing were all exceptional, even by laguz standards. She could hear the beating wings of a bird a great distance away, and could pick out any one smell out of a mingling of dozens and identify every detail of it. Impressive indeed, and Shyala was beginning to think that these keen senses of Lamia's would soon come in quite handy. With every passing moment, the odd unease putrefying the pleasant woodland seemed to grow, gradually, slowly, but steadily.

It did not help that every once in a while, Shyala would see a white, silky film hanging from a tree branch or coating a rock like moss. Sometimes, the birds would panic and then go quiet for a few moments before resuming their songs. And sometimes, on some particularly unpleasant occasion, Lamia would complain of a foul odour or a strange smell- not seeing the object like a small snow white pillow hanging from a tree that Shyala saw.

"We should hurry along," Shyala finally said. "Sir Ike's headquarters can't be far from here. Can you smell any beorc near here?"

"There's a fair few of them about a half hour to the north," Lamia replied in a way that indicated it was blatantly obvious where the beorc were. And, much to Shyala's irritation, it _was _obvious where they were, but in her unrest she had become less wary of the smells and sounds around her; in fact, until Lamia's confirmation brought her back to her senses Shyala focused only on the increasingly disturbing sights.

In fact, not ten minutes ago the she-wolf could have sworn she'd seen a web like that a spider would weave, only so large it spanned from the trunk of one tree to another a good twelve feet away. Her mind wandered back to the pit.

"Like I said, we should hurry," Shyala blurted hurriedly. They both turned to animal form and ran on ahead.

Elise had always had a habit of going too far out into the woods. Sometimes the young woman would wander so far out into the forest to pick the fat berries from the full bushes that she would become lost in the trees; but always she would eventually find her way home. But this time, she seemed even more hopelessly lost than usual. She brushed her long brunette bangs from her eyes. She would need full, unhindered use of those. After all, she had some of the sharpest sense in the village.

Unfortunately, Elise's human senses were nothing compared to those of the animals of the wood. Her ears were not as powerful as those of the fox, her eyes not all-seeing like the eagle's or hawk's. But she was the stubborn, confident sort. But all the trees looked alike. The sounds of the forest came from all directions. Chirping of birds, buzzing of insects, rumbling of…

Rumbling?

There was nothing in the forest that rumbled. Where could the rumbling be coming from? It sounded close. It sounded as if it were coming closer, quickly. Suddenly, a tree snapped like a twig and crashed to the ground! A mass of wood and metal came thundering past, nearly trampling Elise! And it would have, had she not been forewarned by the tree's falling and managed to get out of the way at the last possible moment. The bizarre thing of rolling steel and lumber stormed off into the distance, leaving as quickly as it came.

Elise was stunned for a moment. Then she came to her senses after coming to a joyful realization; the thing of metal and wood, whatever it was, was obviously man-made. That meant it was come from a settlement of some kind! All she had to do was follow its trail of destruction back to wherever it came from.

There was only one complication, however. Elise couldn't move. As much as she tried, she was completely immobilized. Looking around frantically, she saw that she had dove out of the way of the rumbling thing right into some kind of silky web. Panicking, she struggled more and more, screaming for someone to help her.

No one would hear her cries. No one with intention of freeing her, at least. In her terror, Elise concentrated only on the web ensnaring her, oblivious to all else. Oblivious to the long, thin limbs reaching down from the trees above. Oblivious to the fangs and mandibles opening wide to feast.

"With all due respect, your majesty, you cannot honestly tell me that you came all the way here from Daein to question my decision to send Lamia to help your representative?"

"For one, call me Nailah. We're here to have a decent and intelligent discussion and I find it hard to do that when you're calling me 'majesty'. Second, Shyala is not my representative, she's my right-hand woman. Third, yes I did come here to question why you sent Lamia instead of someone more reasonable."

"I didn't have any one else who'd have any influence on Ike, and Lyre and I is busy enough as it is," Lethe replied in the hushed tone the conversation would be spoken in. "I have no idea why I'm helping you with this. King Caneghis doesn't even know about this. Then you come along and tell me you're worried a _giant spider, _of all things, might be running amok."

"To be fair, you weren't that easy to convince. And after facing demonic snakes and lizard-men, you think a giant spider is the most ridiculous foe you've encountered? I find your way a thinking to be almost fascinating."

Lethe's violet eyes wandered the deer hide tent just outside of the Gallian village where she lived whenever war did not call her. This tent was a sort of meeting place for her whenever someone wanted to have an important, but private, conversation. She and Ranulf had many private "conversations" here when they were young lovers- a doomed relationship, but fun while it lasted.

"Did you have anything else to say?" the cat questioned the wolf.

"Are you actually doing anything important right now?" Nailah answered the question with another question.

"…I'll admit I have nothing to do."

"Then how about you go speak to Ike. You know more about this problem we're facing here than your sister."

"I would if not for his Majesty wanting his generals to keep eyes on Begnion. They're up to something, we all know it. A scouting party reported an entire army marching north to Daein."

"The others can handle that, can't they? This is more important."

"…Fine. Fine, I'll go. But you're coming with me."

"Fair enough, Gallian. We should bring Michiah along as well."

"Why? Won't Daein need her if Begnion is going to attack?"

"Need I remind you, General, one thing Begnion isn't expecting is that the Laguz Alliance did not destroy the Lizards; instead, we put them all in a cave system under Daein, which the Begnionions will no doubt wander right into. Any of them that manage to get through there will most likely be finished off by the Daeins."

"How about this; _you _go and fetch Michiah, and I'll go straight to Crimea."

"That sounds reasonable. We leave in the morning."


	8. Chapter 8

Soren had been missing since breakfast, which was at least five hours ago. He should come out for lunch by now; not that he would have been missing much. Though Mist's cooking had improved much over the years, she still could not make a decent rabbit stew. Perhaps it was only the rabbits; any other kind of stew she was adept at preparing efficiently and deliciously. But now Ike was getting off-topic. Enough of foul-tasting rabbits, where was Soren?

The most obvious place to look was his office. But Ike didn't need to even knock on the door to ask if anything was the matter to tell that something was very, very wrong. He couldn't knock on the door anyway- it was covered in a think white silk, holding the door tightly in place. If Soren were pounding furiously on the other side of the door or screaming his lungs out for rescue, no one would be able to hear it through the thick film.

The only logical thing to do was to cut away the silky covering. But the long, broad sword Ike had with him now would not be so good for such a task. He could always just hack the whole door down, but what if Soren was right on the other side when the blade came down? That would not be a desirable end to the situation at all. Ike would have to make an awkward attempt to remove the film. No need to worry, he could probably do it with his bare hands.

Ike tried to tear the film with his hands. No use. It was as hard and thick as armour made of wrought iron. Now was the time to draw the sword. But alas, trying to discretely cut the covering away was hopeless as well. It would take a forcible swing to rip it away. Ike not only hoped that Soren was not only still alive and well inside his office, but also that he had the good sense to stay away from the door when strange noises were coming from the other side- assuming Soren could, in fact, hear through the thick white barrier. He readied himself for the strike; one strong, precise blow should do it.

"Brother, what are you doing?!"

Ike froze; staring at him was his young sister Mist (who, with her shoulder-length hazel hair, looked very different from her brother). A long moment of awkward silence passed. The siblings stared at each other, Ike still holding his blade high, ready to strike the door. At last Mist's eyes shifted to the door to Soren's office, covered in the white silk.

"There's…. There's someone who wants to see you outside," the girl said at last.

"Tell them I'll be out in a moment," replied Ike quietly and calmly before shouting, "Soren, if you're in there and you can hear me, back away as far from the door as you can!"

The sword came down fast and hard, piercing the webbing, but the door was untouched. Ike slashed again; surely Soren had heard the first blow and would know this one was coming. Ike hoped he did, because this time the blade shattered the door like glass. Ike waited a moment, peering inside the room and calling Soren's name. The entire room was covered in the same material as what coated the door. Sure enough, there was Soren staring out at his rescuer from the darkness.

"Are you alright?" Ike questioned the mage.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me," Soren confirmed breathlessly.

"What is all of this?! It looks like… like spider webs!" Ike scrutinized the white silk coating the door and office.

"It is, Ike. We have a spider problem. A very, very large spider problem."

"What is it, a whole hive of them or something? Are there thousands of them crawling around somewhere?"

"No. There's just one of them."

Shyala and Lamia stood waiting at the front door of the mercenary headquarters. One thing most cats had that the oddity Lamia still possessed as well was nearly endless patience. Shyala's own patience was beginning to come to an end. At last, the door swung open, and there he was, the leader of the Greil Mercenaries, Ike.

"What do you want?" he asked. He spoke quickly and decidedly unprofessionally, as if this were merely a minor inconvenience in his busy schedule, which it likely was. But he'd have to set whatever else he had on the go aside for a few moments.

"Greetings, Sir Ike. My name is Shyala, and my associate here is Lamia. We are here by order of Queen Hitari to look into a potential problem on your grounds," explained Shyala. Ike looked surprised for a moment, as if this were something he knew would happen, but did not expect it to happen so soon.

"Might this have something to do with a, say… And this is just a shot in the dark… A spider?" questioned Ike.

"Her Majesty did not go into much detail, but yes, spiders are likely involved."

"…Come in, both of you." He ushered the two laguz inside.

Zelgius was hell-bent on reclaiming his weapon. The small groups of soldiers accompanying him knew that the mass of metal and wood given life by unholy magic, that the Goddess never intended any of her children to use, was now the mad man's pride and joy. Gripping their shields and lances, swords, bows and arrows with hands that remained steady despite their unease, they followed Zelgius deep into the woods. The sooner they found Steelgod the better; this forest was covered, from the trees to the stones, in what looked like giant cobwebs.

Not that Steelgod would be hard to track; it left a very noticeable trail. It left trees uprooted and rocks ground into dust in its wake. Surely they would find it soon. Zelgius was disturbingly quiet. These soldiers had served under him for many years. They knew that before the war with the sub-humans Zelgius would have given them a full motivational speech and a half by now. That Zelgius was gone, with only a thoughtless shell of a man with an unquenchable thirst for revenge left in his stead.

Zelgius was unbothered by the cobwebs, the abnormal silence, and the strengthening aura of fear from the five soldiers at his back. As a warrior's strength grew, his fear should wither and die like a flower in a long drought. These men had clearly fled and cowered when the Lizards attacked, or else they would not be so cowardly. His bloodshot eyes stared only ahead, searching for his quarry.

Suddenly, abruptly, a scream! One of the soldiers was dragged into the ground by something that struck so quickly it could scarcely be seen! The other soldiers panicked, shooting arrows into the ground and forest! Another blurred strike, another man gone! Zelgius gave his orders; leave the killing grounds and flee ahead, following Steelgod's trail. To the soldiers, anything would be better than staying to be slaughtered by an unseen killer in the ground.

Six sapphire eyes peered out of one of many borrows in the earth, obscured by webbing, dirt, and fallen leaves. Large, sharp fangs clicked together in anticipation of the hunt.


	9. Chapter 9

_Looks like we might already be too late here. _This grim thought quickly infiltrated Lethe's mind as she wandered through the web-covered forest, the landscape thick with huge cobwebs, the air thick with the stench of death and the sound of silence. One look at this tainted place instantly convinced her that an arachnid of impossible size was running amok. The monotony of the dead woods gave the cat much time to think; Begnion had been up to many strange and malevolent things as of late. Could they have had something to do with this? It seemed possible. The scouts also reported a weapon of some kind, like a mobile ballista, with the Begnion army, moving as if by its own power. Who knew what other foul things they could have created to aid their cause? And this was no doubt a time of desperation for them; the Lizards ravaged their nation until almost nothing was left of it. It was not inconceivable that the defeated Begnion would resort to dark arts of some kind to quickly restore their glory.

Lethe knew well the way to the Mercenary headquarters; not even gross surreal forest of death would be able to throw her off-track. But her ears and nose warned her of something; something that moved with such stealth and silenced that only those gifted with exceptional hearing- or those who had earned it- would be able to hear it coming. Is smell was faint; almost indistinguishable from the acrid reeking of the webs. This thing, whatever it was, would no doubt be impossible for beorc or unwary laguz to detect.

And, whatever it was, it was coming right at Lethe. Very quickly. No trees or bushes rustled to give it away, but Lethe knew which way it would come from. On this thin path through the trees, it would be difficult to see until it was almost upon her. She readied herself; expecting danger, she was already in animal form, and if nothing worthy of death by her claws challenged her she could stay in that form for quite some time longer. The faint noise of many small, light feet poking the webbing, making quiet thumps, began to grow ever so slightly louder. Lethe could make out something approaching her quickly; it was roughly the same size as her, but with its many long, featureless legs and bald, shining skin the color of fresh grass it certainly looked nothing like a cat.

It suddenly stopped. The cat prepared to make the first move. Then it struck with blinding speed! It wrapped its eight legs around her; all she could see of it at this point was its huge fangs like jagged curved daggers and its mouth behind the mandibles, drooling onto Lethe's face. She resisted and struggled, slashing its limbs with her claws, biting back at its face! The spider's shrieks of pain were deafeningly loud as its violet blood coated the cat's paws! It flung itself backwards off of her, writhing around on its back before righting itself and staring at its would-be prey with its eerie blue eyes. The spider's eyes were dead and emotionless. There was no doubt in Lethe's mind that staring into eyes like those for too long could drive anyone to terrified madness. She tried to focus on some other part of it- she had to keep her eyes on it in case it tried to attack again- but the spider's eyes held her in a trance.

Then, admitting defeat for now, the spider retreated as quickly as it could on its injured legs back into the forest. Lethe stood motionlessly for a minute. But the trance lost its hold on her, and continued to Ike's headquarters. Nailah would be most reassured to know that this was not some indestructible god of evil they faced, but instead a mortal creature. A creature that could bleed. A creature that could feel pain. A creature that could be killed.

The rest of the company left on a job to defend a lord's manor from bandits lurking nearby, Mist among them, leaving only Ike and Soren at the headquarters. Even though both were usually needed in the group, the others would be fine without them. These two were needed here at base to discuss a more urgent matter.

"Soren here spent most of this day sealed in his office by some kind of webbing, and when I freed him he spoke to me of a troublesome spider." Ike started the conversation off strong. "He also sounded like he might have known a thing or two about it. Do you have knowledge of this creature, Soren?"

The sage nodded. "I do. I first encountered it a few days ago, when it appeared in my office- much smaller than it likely is now. Over time, it somehow grew, until it simply disappeared; seemingly just hours before it trapped me in my office."

"Ike, you've never seen this creature, only some of its handiwork?" Shyala questioned.

"All I've seen of it are the webs on the office door," confirmed Ike. "That's not to say I'm at all skeptical about it. It seems to me this thing is most certainly dangerous to some degree, maybe even quite smart. I don't think some stupid bug would know to completely seal a room off so the person who knows most about it suffocates."

Shyala had to restrain a smile at the thought that the spider sounded to be more intelligent than Lamia, who leaned sleepily on the she-wolf's shoulder. "Lamia, I know this must be boring for yo, but please try to stay awake," said Shyala loudly. "You are a part of the meeting as well."

"Well, if I HAVE to say something..." the little cat said irritably. "We're talking about a spider, right? A really big spider? If it's that big, it has to eat a lot, doesn't it? It's probably out there somewhere, staking out it's hunting grounds." Shyala was almost impressed with these words of blatantly obvious wisdom. "And if the spider's out there claiming hunting grounds, it'll probably be very territorial. I know a lot about territorial predators; Lethe is very territorial."

"I think you'd know that first hand, Ike," Soren added under his breath.

"That's just what I was going to say!" Lamia exclaimed.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Ike demanded to know.

"Back on topic!" Shyala brought the meeting back on track. "Do you have more to add, Lamia?"

"Yeah. If spiders are anywhere near as territorial as my sister, one this big will claim a pretty big area for itself, and it'll probably guard its territory jealously- competition for food and shelter and all." Lamia now almost sounded intelligent and scholarly.

"For all we know, we could be in its territory right now," Soren guessed. Lamia nodded to confirm.

"But his isn't the spider's property; its ours, and if it shows up here, we're going to teach it a lesson," asserted Ike.

"How do you know we'll be able to defeat it?" questioned Soren. "Who knows how much bigger it might have gotten! For all we know, it might have some ability we don't yet know of! This spider might even be more than we could ever imagine it to be!"

Suddenly, the front door swung open! "I'm not sure if it has any hidden abilities, but I'm quite sure we can handle it." Lethe stood in the doorway, her finger coated in a thick purple liquid. "This is it's blood on my hands. It attacked me, and I fought it off without breaking a sweat. It hasn't gotten any bigger than my cat form, and from what I've seen it isn't much smarter than a pet dog. We can handle it."

"General! So good you could join us," greeted Shyala. "You've seen the monster first hand. Excellent. Please, have a seat, tell us what it was like."

Lethe accepted the offer. "First, some god news; the Wolf Queen herself is on her way her to assist us, and coming along with her is a comrade of mine from the Lizard invasion, a mage from Daein named Michiah. I don't trust any of you have heard of her. Regardless, the two of them will be here in the next few days.

Soren took no issue to this. They'd need all the help they could get.

Off went the man once known as Zelgius, down a steep hill into a clearing, ordering his three remaining men to stay behind in the forest above. Why he did this was anyone's guess. All the trio knew was that they could not bare to call this madman Zelgius.

"There's almost nothing of the old Zelgius left in him! He doesn't even LOOK like Zelgius any more!" one soldier lamented once their leader was out of earshot.

"If he were like he used to be he'd be trying to rebuild the empire, not going off on a wild goose chase like this," said another man.

"Enough about Zelgius!" announced the third soldier. "Let's try thinking happy thoughts for a moment. What are you two planning on doing once we get back home?"

"IF we get home. We can't forget about what happened a while back."

"I said happy thoughts! I think I'm going to retire to my brother's farm. He needs the help, and I've had enough fighting to last me a lifetime."

"I haven't thought about that much. Hm... I think I might train new recruits at a military academy somewhere."

The first man laughed uneasily. "After this, I never even want to lay eyes on a weapon again. I may as well just be a born-again priest once I get home!"

Something caught the second soldier's attention. "What's that over there? In the bushes! Do you see it?"

A scrawny fox with fiery orange fur sauntered out of the underbrush. The third man looked almost glad to see the mangy little creature. "I had a fox kit as a pet when I was a kid," he said, lost in nostalgia. "Watch this, I bet I can get it to come over here." He knelt down on one knee and laid his lance and shield down next to him. Then he removed a small strip of dried jerky from a satchel around his waist. Holding out the meat, he made beckoning gestures and sounds, as if he were calling a pet dog. Sure enough, the fox came and sniffed the meat. It hesitated for a moment.

The fox opened its mouth. But rather than the expected teeth and lolling tongue, huge fangs and mandibles bulged from the animal's mouth! It took more than the jerky from the soldier's hand; it bit off the man's entire hand! His comrades would pain no attention to his suffering, however. Not when the fox's skin began to split and peel off, revealing slimy green exoskeleton underneath! Where the little canine sat just moments ago, there now stood a monstrous spider, big as a tiger, little chunks and strips of its disguise's hide still dangling from its legs and body. It sprayed acid from its mouth into the first man's face, melting away first his helmet, then the flesh off his face! As it scuttled after the handless soldier it knocked the horrified second man down the hill, right into a trap door into the ground, hidden by cobwebs and dead leaves!

This prey disappointed Brakawl. Their weak resistance to his attack prevented him from relishing their juices when he fed upon them later. But he knew he would be satisfied with his next hunt.


	10. Chapter 10

Now Lethe was here; this situation grew more dire for Soren with every few minutes. The sage went out onto the grounds, not able to bear what might occur between her and Ike. Some fresh air would do him well, no doubt. He'd just go for a quick stroll. But he wouldn't stray too far from the buildings or go into the deeper forest, of course. There was a nature trail, of sorts, behind the main building that was mostly obscured by structures and rock formations, and protected by short wooden fences and a river running alongside it. It was only nature trail "of sorts" because it was in actuality an elongated training grounds, the few individual practice areas connected by fenced-in dirt paths. Surely the spider had yet to expand its range to there. It would be quick and pleasant, allowing Soren to take his mind off the pressing matters at hand for a short while so he could think more clearly once he got back to them.

Alas, Soren quickly came to the conclusion that he would find no peace on this excursion. He saw that Lamia had also come to the trail. She looked different now; her tunic was red, and her hair was longer and straitened in the front, although it was still curly in the back. The cat lazed in the shade of a tree, looking quite asleep. Soren went on past her, not willing to deal with whatever idiocy she might throw at him.

"Hey, you! Pale kid!" she suddenly shouted, "hold up for a minute!"

Soren froze, trying to not cringe at what might come next, stopped to listen. "Can I help you?" he asked, trying to sound some semblance of polite. He wasn't in the mood to waste time arguing with some brainless hair ball.

"You noticed my new look, right?" Lamia asked.

"I have," the sage answered.

"What do you think of it?"

"It... Suits you well."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean red is a good color for you."

"And my hair?"

"It doesn't look much different, actually."

"Not even at the front?" Lamia wiped a few stray strands of hair out of her eyes. "I spent an hour and a half straitening it."

"There is that, but otherwise it looks the same," replied Soren. Lamia looked somewhat disappointed with this response, but she soon brightened up. She seemed to have noticed something she found to be very interesting. _Oh no, _Soren thought.

"You smell funny," the cat remarked. "What's that on your shoulder?" Before Soren could react, she reached over and peeled something wet and slimy off of his left shoulder. It was like a translucent layer of slimy, molted reptile skin. "Ew... Any idea where this might've com from?" Lamia inquired.

"Not the slightest clue," answered Soren. _But it probably has to do with that damned spider. _

"You sure you weren't doing some weird... mage stuff?" Lamia's interrogation of Soren continued, when she got another strange look on her face, this look one of accusation. "You made that thing, didn't you? You did some crazy experiment, and made some kind of monster spider!"

Lamia was right; it wasn't some crazy experiment that spawned the monster, but Soren still allowed the creature life and power. He needed something to distract her, or take her mind off of the matter. There were a few other options, but he dare not attempt such deeds again. What was there to keep her busy with? What could he use against her tiny beast-woman mind? What about her change of attire? She had yet to give an explanation for that.

"Where did you get that red tunic?" asked Soren. "You were wearing a pink tunic before, if I recall correctly."

Lamia looked down at her clothing. The distraction seemed to be working; Soren allowed himself a thin, victorious smile. "I was bathing down at the river, and I put my tunic on inside out," she explained. "Or maybe it was inside out before? It feels less scratchy now."

"I'll admit, even if it doesn't look much different it does look a bit better," Soren found himself saying. Why did he say that? He wasn't sure. He just said it. He had complimented her. It was only something small, but he had complimented her. Now the cat might think he wanted to be friends, that he wanted to be her chum, her comrade. This was not the case. The sage wanted nothing to do with this stupid feline harpy. Bt even if he didn't, he had just said she looked nice anyway.

"Yeah? Thanks, I thought it looked good, too," Lamia replied. She then walked past Soren, back down the trail to the buildings._ Yes, thank you, _the sage thought, _leave me in peace. _He went on his way in the opposite direction. But he could not ignore what he had just done. Perhaps he spent too much time alone. He was inadvertently willing to reach out to any fool for friendship. But why this idiot Lamia? Her companion Shyala seemed more Soren's type. She was quieter, calmer, smarter...

_Wait, "more my type"?_

Soren stopped thinking and just kept walking.

"Oh no... This is worse than I had foreseen." Michiah's tone was grim, and rightfully so. The trees and bushes were withering into dust; the forest around Crimea was becoming a desolate wasteland of dead grey sand and silk white webs, tall thin spires of something- neither Michiah nor Nailah had much interest in what these were made of- towering hundreds of feet high. How one spider could have done all of this so quickly was mind-blowing, leading the Wolf Queen to ask a disturbing question.

"Could it be possible that there is more than one?" Michiah cringed at the thought, but she alarmed even herself with the answer.

"It is quite possible."

Both were silent for a short time. A dying tree collapsed into ash behind them. As they went along their way, Nailah recalled something Michiah had said once. "If I asked you if you could see into the future, would you look at me as if I were mad?" the Wolf Queen asked.

"Of course not, I was once a fortune teller. I made a living telling people I can see into the future, and I can," Michiah replied. "I assume you think that ability can help us."

"It is a very handy skill, I'd think. And you can do it any time you like?"

"Yes, I can. Should I do it now?"

"Yes, let's see this area in, say, a month from now."

Michiah nodded at Nailah's request and closed her eyes tightly, concentrating hard. "I see it... Ah, its horrible! There is no trace of the forest left... The sky is violet and the earth is black and burnt... Grey spires rise up through the clouds, thier bases covered with..." The maiden became silent, her face twisted with horror.

"With what?" asked Nailah, "What are the bases covered in, Michiah, what?"

"Cocoons... Large enough for a man to fit inside of... Some are smaller, some are larger... There are spiders everywhere... They're massive! Bigger than tigers! There's something else here... I can't tell what it is, its so big it blots out the sun... Its legs are like the spires... Every step it takes shakes the ground like an earthquake..." Michiah opened her eyes. "I am sorry. I cannot take any more of that."

"You've said enough," Nailah assured her. "Now come. We must hurry!"

"Not yet!" Michiah cried out. "There is something near. Something so full of dark power..." She shuddered. Sure enough, just a few moments of stillness and silence, a moving ballista came rolling out from behind a spire. Moving in thier direction, it came a bit closer, stopped, came a bit closer still, stopped again, came another small bit closer, and then, when it was about sixty feet away, unfolded itself into the shape of a huge man of wood and steel and stood up, glaring down at the two small beings of mere flesh and blood!

"Your surprise tells me that you have no idea what that is?" Nailah guessed.

"I do not know what this construct is, no," Michiah responded. "But it is so full of dark energy... I sense evil souls inhabiting the lifeless husk and giving it power..."

The thing did not attack. It did not move. Sometimes it made a jerking motion that indicated that it would, but the wooden giant did nothing. Its fingers curled and uncurled. It seemed to be indecisive as to what to do next.

"You seem knowledge about this kind of thing. Do you have any idea why it isn't attacking?" Nailah inquired.

"I sense there are ten demons possessing this construct. Before it does anything, they all have to agree on it," Michiah explained. "Some of them no doubt want to strike, but some of them clearly do not wish it. We must leave here in case they put their differences aside." The two of them, following Nailah's nose, walked right past the behemoth, back on thier way. It jerked more as they hurried past, some of the demons within it thirsting for thier blood while others were less passionate in thier violence.

Another unsettling question entered Nailah's mind: "Could it be possible that the spider and that construct are linked?"

"If the spider is demonic, and the construct is possessed by demons, even if they did not come to our world by the same means," answered Michiah gravely, "Yes. They most likely are linked."

--

For anyone wondering, Lamia is supposed to be Lyre from _Radiant Dawn _(while the Lyre in my fics is my own original character), hence Lamia's indentity crisis. And no, I do not much care for _RD _Lyre. Lethe is quite enough bitchy cat-girl for me.


	11. Chapter 11

Rain poured down from the skies. It was cold and stinging, but that was of no concern to Zelgius. It kept him calm, at least. He now made his way to Daein, having failed to find Steelgod and growing weary of searching. In comparison to those troubles, the rain was no bother at all, indeed.

No bother at all...

_Where am I? What has it driven me to now?_

Zelgius stopped in his tracks.

_I must keep moving, there is something I seek. _

_But what?_

Something was horribly amiss. It had taken him over again. Unfortunately for this evil, the old Zelgius was not completely gone. He still remained, barely hanging on to his former persona. Someone had to help him if he was to stay afloat in the deepening sea of madness consuming him, however. But who could save the once-great Zelgius from sure damnation?

_Ike! Surely Ike might know someone who could assist me, he has a fairly large social network, mustn't he?_

"The situation has gotten exponentially worse," announced Soren. All the group was gathered in the armory building, discussing the disturbing news that arrived with the Wolf Queen and Silver-Haired Maiden. Although the Ike and Soren had never met either Nailah or Michiah, introductions and pleasantries would have to come later. For now, there were more important things to worry about.

"It seems we only have roughly a month to eradicate the spider before it somehow creates hell on earth," Soren continued. "Then there's the complication of some kind of a metal giant infested with demon spirits. However, that problem might take care of itself, as all the demons within the giant have to agree on an action before it does it. For we know it's frozen somewhere in the woods. Destroying the spider is still our top priority."

"And I'd like to remind everyone that I've managed to fight it off and wound it once before," Lethe added. "The hardest part about this will be finding the thing. Killing it be shouldn't be all that difficult."

"So far as we know, the spider has claimed the entire forest as its territory. We are no doubt on what it thinks to be its territory. We need to quickly form a plan to show it where its jurisdiction truly ends."

The meeting went on for hours, until the sun sank into the night sky and disappeared behind the tree line. No definite plan was made, although Shyala made a suggestion to lure the spider of of the forest with meat and then kill it while it was distracted with the food, which would be taken into consideration. Ike retired to his room early that night. He was more worried about Soren than he was about the spider or the metal giant.

Soren had been acting strangely those past few days. He was rather nervous and jumpy, sometimes looking over his shoulder for no apparent reason, and he constantly spoke with some urgency, even when no urgency was warranted. And then there was how comfortable he seemed around Lethe. Soren _hated _Lethe, and Ike knew it. He tried to keep the two away from each other as best he could, and they did the same, but when they did inadvertently meet Ike had to drag them away from each other. lest one kill the other. Lethe at first started most of these confrontations, but she eventually learned to co-exist with her "mortal foe", as Ike jokingly put it. Could Soren have finally done the same?

Somehow, this led Ike to other thoughts. As one could expect, he had seen Lethe in various forms of undress, and the part of her that always stood out most to him, were her many scars. Most of them were very small and discrete, more like minor blemishes than scars. But some very noticeable. Four small, circular scars peppered her arms and legs, which Lethe claimed were inflicted by arrows from Daein archers. Another larger wound on her right shoulder came from the claw of a raptor from the Lizard Invasion two years ago. An arch of bite marks on her torso also was a gift from that same raptor.

But the one that stood out most of all was the long, thin slash down her back, inflicted by a Daein paladin four years ago during the Mad King's war. It went right from her shoulders down to the base of her tail. It was a miracle Lethe had survived the wound for any longer than a single hour, let alone that she lasted four hours dragging herself back to the Crimean Army's camp. Rhys had only barely been able to save her, and even then she has to stay out of battle for three and a half weeks. It was only after this nearly losing her did Ike first realize he had feelings for Lethe.

After she had recovered, the two spoke before the final battle. They revealed many things to each other; not the least of these secrets being that Lethe was actually two years older than Ike. That would have made him 18 and her 20 when they first met, and now, he was 22 while she was 24. Ike realized how strange it was, his relationship with an older laguz woman.

Thy had been something of an item for four years. Perhaps now it was time to start thinking about a serious relationship. Settle down, maybe even start a family.

And now Ike realized that he was thinking too much for the moment. He needed to rest his mind. Although he amused himself mildly by imagining how insane being around so many laguz at once without the comforting accompaniment of an equal or greater number of beorc must have been driving Soren. Ike sat down at the foot of his bed. He would soon fall asleep there. A short while later, Lethe would come and join him.


	12. Chapter 12

The morning was cold and foggy; fog was very unusual in Crimea, at least at this time of year. Michiah had hardly slept the night before. The growing dark power was slowly becoming unbearable, so much that it was almost physically hurting her. The Silver-Haired Maiden had opted to sit in the main hall rather than even attempt to sleep- not that she was doing anything useful with herself either way. But if she had tried to sleep, tall she would accomplish was to make the discomfort all the more apparent to herself.

The fog remained all morning. Sometimes Michiah would look outside and see strange, unrecognizable figures moving slowly in the mist. It was at these times the painful feeling of dread was most agonizing. At mid-morning, something rumbled in the distance and a large, looming shape materialized in the fog. It did not go away. It only stood, tall and motionless, a black smear on a white canvas.

Soon, another large shape appeared in the fog, staring into the main hall through the windows. This apparition was wider, but not as tall as the other one. It seemed strange that no one else had awoken to join Michiah in watching these wraiths materialize in the dusk. It must have been nearly noon when Nailah finally came. It seemed odd to the Wolf Queen that Michiah would just be sitting there, staring out the windows of the main hall into the mist, but then again Nailah had noticed that nearly everything about that girl was odd.

"Are you perhaps trying to peer into the future again?" Nailah had not announced her presence before speaking. Michiah was slightly startled, but that did not explain why she took nearly a minute to muster a response.

"There are things in the fog. I've been watching them all morning," Michiah finally said. "Look out the window. You see them, don't you?"

Nailah peered out the window to the left of the large doors into the hall- Michiah was looking out the window on the doors' right- and sure enough, she too saw the looming figures in the fog, just as Michiah said.

"You see them? The tall one and the wide one?"

"Actually, I see the tall one and three wide."

Michiah and Nailah looked away from the windows and exchanged glances. Then they both looked back into the fog. The tall one remained as it was, but now, at least six of the short, wide things stood around it in a tangled mess of silhouettes!

"Can you smell anything?"

The Wolf Queen sniffed the air. "I can smell the fog, but that's it."

"And what does the fog smell like?"

"The fog smells like- Well, fog. I can't really describe it in a way you could understand. The fog is but fog."

"But do they get fog in Crimea?" Michiah, never having been in Crimea before, would not have known this.

"Rarely. It usually only happens in the early morning. Usually it clears up by now." This voice was Ike's, sneaking up on the two as Nailah's had on Michiah.

"And do strange figures often appear in the fog?" Nailah asked with a slight sarcastic edge to her voice.

Ike, as usual, was oblivious to this, treating the question with full seriousness. "No, not that I know of." It took all of Nailah's strength to resist showing her amusement.

Soren, as usual, had hardly slept the previous night. Unusually, however, it was because of his own unending barrage of thoughts and mixed feelings than because of paperwork; although there was quite a bit of the latter to do as well. His thoughts were about Brakawl. His feelings, however, were about something else. It was something he'd never known before; he had felt something like it once not long ago, but this emotion was much stronger.

Now here he was this morning, in his office, doing nothing. It was very strange for Soren to be idly sitting around. He almost always had something to keep him busy, and if there was, by some odd chance, nothing to work on he'd take it upon himself to find something else to work on. But not this morning. Soren had nothing to do, and he was making no effort to find something to do. He surprised even himself with his inactivity.

After a while Soren left his office, bringing with him _Heathen Gods of the Old Chaos. _As he wandered the halls, he read the book's entry on Brakawl, searching for whatever weaknesses it might have.

"Brakawl was often slow and sluggish in battle, but he could be very swift and cunning when he wanted to be. He could convert lesser demons into smaller, less powerful version of himself, and often made tall spires out of webbing and debris to establish his dominance over an area."

Brakawl was occasionally slow and clumsy, but could have bursts of graceful speed at times. That was hardly a weakness. But he did make his territory clear. That would tell one where to look, or what areas to avoid. Soren read on.

"Brakawl, as can be expected of horrible monsters with high social standings, relished sacrifices of young maidens. He would gather them in a pit and then feed upon them in mass, although anyone who tried to defend the girls were also collected and devoured. Brakawl was very fickle and greedy, often stealing and hording treasures which he would use to decorate his spires."

The spider had a love for treasure. That was one weak point that could be quite easily exploited. However, there was no mention of the quality of the treasure required to lure the monster. Would simple gold coins suffice? Or perhaps jewels and true wealth would be necessary? The Wolf Queen would no doubt have plenty of that on her person. But perhaps Soren was looking too far into a simple matter like that.

So engrossed in his reading and thinking was Soren that he paid little attention to his surroundings. He did not notice something following him down the hall. It had been stalking him, silently following from just a few feet away, almost from the moment he left his office. The thing was soon to strike. It readied itself for the attack!

Soren was knocked face first to the ground! Claws dug into his shoulders as something breathed hot breath down his neck! Then the claws eased and retracted and the thing left him. Getting up and looking over his shoulder, Soren's surprise was lessened upon seeing his attacker was Lamia, leaning against a wall looking down at him with amusement.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?!" Soren half asked, half yelled at her.

"I was bored and I don't like you," the cat answered simply. She noticed the book. "What's that?"

"Its a book," Soren answered with a bitter, contempt an edge to his voice.

"Well, no shit. What's that _on the page?"_

"Its nothing."

"Then why are you wasting your time reading it?"

"I find it interesting."

"Are you feeling alright? You're not as pale as usual."

Soren did feel rather warm in the face. Otherwise, he felt nothing wrong with him. "I'm fine. I'd think that if anyone here had something wrong with them, it would be you, ambushing people in the halls without reason."

"I had two reasons, remember? Looks like I've embarrassed you; you're blushing. But if I were you, I'd be humiliated all the time anyway."

Blushing? Was Soren blushing? Indeed, he felt humiliated. He stood up, grabbed the book, and was about to go along his way without a response when Lamia spoke again: "At least, I hope that's embarrassment."

Ike, Nailah, and Michiah stood in the main hall watching the figures in the fog. The tall thing had not moved at all in the past hour, but the short, wide ones (now nine in number) slowly lumbered around in the mist. Another figure materialized in the fog. This one was massive, the tallest and widest of all of them. It seemed to be slowly approaching the building.

"From the look of this we've got a hell of a lot more to worry about than one giant spider." Ike had said what all three of them were thinking. "I'll get the others." His words were like a challenge to the things in the fog.

A challenge they accepted.

The largest figure stopped and faded away into the mist. Suddenly, the nine smaller things all rushed out of the white cloak! Details emerged; they were huge spiders the size of large dogs, emerald green in color! They squealed and shrieked, their long, skinny legs dragging their fat bodies along the ground, slime and drool dripping from their twitching mandibles!


	13. Chapter 13

The spiders came quickly despite their clumsiness. They tried to clamber into the main hall through the windows; they tried to chew through the doors of the hall, and when they found the wood too tough for thier fangs, they tried to bash the doors down! The defending trio's first instincts were to get away from the windows and doors and prepare for battle. Ike drew his blade. Nailah transformed to wolf form. Michiah brought to mind all her knowledge of combat magic.

The spiders were too large and clumsy to get in through the windows, but they were having better luck with the doors. A leg ending in small but cruel talons managed to worm its way through a slowly widening crack! In a single quick motion, Ike lunged forward and cleanly slashed the leg off! Yellow blood leaked onto the floor of the hall as a shrill scream pierced the air!

The grunting and screaming of the spiders quickly came to a stop after that blow. The door began still and sturdy once again. The creatures seemed to have retreated. But the two large, looming things remained distant and unmoved in the fog ahead.

"This can't be the end of it," Nailah quickly deduced. "They have something else in mind, I feel it."

"They knew we'd think that," Michiah added after a moment of silence. "They'll wait for us to leave, and then they'll come in through the door. And even if we all stay, some will come in from other places."

"Then you two stay here, I'll get the others," said Ike as he turned to retreat deeper into the building. But before he left, he asked one last question. "How did you figure all of that out so quickly?"

"For now, we'll but say that I have excellent foresight," answered Michiah. "Now go! They'll be inside in mere moments!"

The first place Ike went was his own quarters. He rushed through the halls, taking note that Soren was in his office, presumably doing paperwork as usual. Ike did not see Shyala or Lamia anywhere, but then again he was not looking for them.

Lethe was awoken with a start when Ike came bursting in through the bedroom door, shouting some about giant spiders. That explained the strange noises outside of the roof and the awful stench wafting in from the window. Lethe sighed; there was a time when she didn't mind spiders. In fact, she actually almost liked them for their stealth and patience. Now she hated the damned things. It was funny how this worked. Everything Lethe once liked was making her dislike it (for example, she had a slight fondness for snakes and reptiles before the Cockatrice Incident and the Lizard Invasion). Likewise, a lot of things she once hated she had come to not mind as much (such as her relationship with Ike).

"Give me a moment to get my clothes on," grumbled Lethe tiredly as she crawled out from under the covers. As she did that, Ike kept a close eye on the room's sole window, blade ready. One spider did show its ugly face, but only long enough to peer in through the window, squeal in surprise (they obviously did not expect to be expected), and then skitter away into the fog.

Shyala had slept a bit last night, but not much. However, as could be expected of someone on the move as much as her, she did not need much sleep. Most everyone who had ever met the quiet, reserved Shyala would describe her as boring- even Nailah would not be gracious enough to pretend she was interesting. However, Shyala enjoyed silence and monotony. She was something of an oddity indeed. Even if she was not sleeping, she still laid, curled up on the bed, head not on the pillow and body not under the covers (how beorc slept like that without waking up with heat rash or something every morning was a mystery to her). She was satisfied to lie there in the darkness.

Next to her on the bed was her poncho. Only Shyala knew what she wore under that poncho, although Nailah had many theories as to what she wore under there. None of them were right; the Wolf Queen was thinking a bit too big. Shyala wore under her poncho was what any woman wore under her over clothes. Although the leather did tend to chaff her bosom a bit, she wasn't sure if anyone else had that problem.

But something was shattering Shyala's beloved silence. Not long ago, two people were talking in the halls. Then some heavy fool was running up and down the corridors. Now something scraped against the wall. Shyala opened one eye.

_Crack!_

The wall was breaking open! Shyala instantly became fully alert, a deep, angry growl rising from her throat. A huge, emerald segmented leg smashed its way through the wall and into the room! A silk white ooze bled in through the cracks and coated the floor, quickly hardening into thick webbing. The wall crumbled into a heap of web-covered debris, and into the room through the monstrous opening scuttled a massive green spider, shrieking and hissing! The smaller spiders stormed into the room with thier huge companion, squawking as they grabbed and clawed at her! Shyala, taken aback, tried at the last moment to transform but she was a moment to late. A talon raked across her cheek while another spider dug its mandibles into her shoulder! They dragged her screaming from the bed and began gorging themselves on her still screaming, writhing flesh!

Soren's office was directly across the hall from Shyala's room. Lamia had dragged him into the office, insisting they need to talk. But so far she had only grabbed him by the bottom jaw and starting pounding some more whining about how laguz were enslaved and such. She was even worse for this than Lethe. Why she suddenly had started doing this, Soren had no idea, but he now subtly reached for a tome of Thunder, with which he planned to shock her into unconsciousness.

Then came the crashing and screaming. Lamia at last shut up, and the two of them stared at the door for a moment. Then they both hastily exited the office and burst into Shyala's quarters. Lamia was stunned for a moment, a choking gag catching in her throat. Soren nearly doubled over and vomited.

The spiders all feasted on the now dying Shyala, eating her almost down to the bone. Shyala still stared at the door with milky, pleading eyes, gurgling as she drowned in her own blood as it filled her throat and bubbled out of her mouth. The smaller arachnids tore into her with vigor while the giant watched. Then all of them turned to look at the duo.

Soren had brought the Thunder tome with him. Flipping the book open and speaking the words, he loosed a brilliant barrage of electric blasts that fought the spiders back out of the hole from whence they came! One of the creatures was a bit slow to retreat, and was blasted to smoking, sizzling pieces by the thunder. With an ear-rending symphony of horrible shrieks and screams, the spiders fell back into the forest, leaving the mutilated Shyala to bleed in silence.

--

_I DID say there's be violence and disturbing content. You really shouldn't act shocked or surprised when somebody get ripped apart in my stories. Unless it was someone col who usually doesn't die. Then you can be surprised._


	14. Chapter 14

Nailah had been silent and withdrawn since Shyala's death that morning. It was now early afternoon, and the fog still remained, thick as ever. The lone, towering thing also remained, now standing alone, unmoving and quiet. The grief-stricken Wolf Queen had retreated to her room and stayed there, sitting on the bed cross-legged and staring down at the bed sheets. Both Michiah and Lethe had tried talking to her, trying to coax her out, but it was eventually decided that Nailah simply needed some time alone.

The group had barricaded Shyala's room with debris salvaged from the decimated wall, so that no spiders could enter from there. There were still the windows and main doors, however. Soren had proposed several methods; they could board up the windows using spare wood from the lumber yard- outside. That was quickly ruled out. They could not get debris from Shyala's sealed off room, and although Soren had many other less conventional ideas, they would take a many hours to prepare, and thus would be rather inconvenient.

The sage's final suggestion was that they tightly draped blankets and such over the windows. It would be far less effective than wood or magic, but it would be a decent way to keep the spiders out until Soren could conjure up a more effective method of protection could be put into use.

But there was still the matter of the towering, unmoving figure out in the fog.

Soren and Ike watched it from the main hall windows.

"We can't go out and investigate," Soren quickly concluded. "It's most likely a trap."

"But what if it's doing something out there that we can't see?" questioned Ike. "What if it poses an even bigger threat if we just leave it alone? Shouldn't we try to look into it?"

"A good enough point. But I have a theory: the spiders put that... whatever it is out there with the intention of luring us out. It won't do anything. It's just going to stand there until our curiosity gets the better of us."

"Mmhm, that could be the case," contemplated Ike. "Or it could not be. It might be an instrument in some contingency plan in case whatever it is they're doing now goes wrong."

Just then, Lethe walked out into the main hall. Soren took note of this immediately.

"Of course, it might be a good precaution to send someone fast and powerful with keen senses out to quickly investigate," the sage suggested.

"Yes, that could work." Then Ike noticed Lethe watching the two of them, looking calm but with a subtle expression of suspicion on her face. "Soren, come on, not now."

"What? What are you implying?" Soren sounded genuinely innocent and surprised at the notion.

"You know what? I'll go out and look into this," Ike volunteered. "You two wait in here. I'll be back in a short while." Soren protested this, but before he could even finish his sentence Ike was out the door and into the fog, slowly and cautiously headed towards the towering thing.

The fog stank of some kind of acrid stench. Many foul odors would reach you on a battlefield once the fight was over: the dead, spilled blood, things burning, the like. But this fog stunk unlike anything Ike had ever had the displeasure of smelling before. It was like rotten fruit and sour milk mixed together into a single noxious combination.

Ike approached the huge figure, but no matter how close he got to it, no details emerged. He could scarcely see his hand in front of his face. He also didn't want to get too close to it, or too far from the building. About twenty feet from the thing he stopped and stared hard, trying to make out some details. He couldn't see anything specific but... Wait, did it move? Was that its head turning towards to look at him? Yes, it did move! It now raised an arm, some huge, bulky attachment on its wrist pointed directly at him!

Ike quickly came to the conclusion that he should get back inside now. He whipped around and ran back towards the main hall, blindly and stumbling through the gray, acrid blanket around him! He heard heard a clunking sound behind him, followed by a brief, faint whoosh, followed by a violent, deafening explosion only a few feet away! Ike was thrown through the air, landing in a heap, shellshocked and stunned. He was numb and sluggish, hardly able to get back on his feet and keep limping back to the hall, but otherwise he was unharmed- he was still able to get back up and move, after all.

Once he reached the doors, Ike pounded hard on them. The doors swung open and Lethe grabbed him by the arm and pulled him hard back in. "What happened out there?!" she questioned the panting Ike as he leaned against a wall.

"That thing out there isn't a trap," Ike announced. "It's like a sentinel. It's out there to keep us here. We can't leave, not while that thing is still out there. We're trapped."


	15. Chapter 15

"For all we know, we could be surrounded by those things," Soren implied grimly. "There could be a whole ring of them around us!"

"How many spiders are there left? Eight, right?" calculated Ike. "Eight of them and now this sentinel. And then the rest of the company is going to return in a few days. They could walk right into an ambush."

"Quite a problem for sure. But I have a way to at least get an idea of what kind of numbers we're up against," announced Lethe. "I'll be back in a minute." With that, she left the main hall for the bedrooms. Ike gave Soren a certain look. Soren knew what that meant instantly.

"Lethe had a better chance of staying alive out there then you," the sage reminded his comrade. "You were lucky you were able to get back in here alive. For her, it would have been easy. I was going to suggest she go out instead of you for your own good."

Ike gave no response. He only gazed a Soren for a moment longer before looking back down the hallway where Lethe went. Awkward silence for a moment. Then Ike looked back to Soren.

"You know, don't you?" he asked. Soren nodded slowly. "How do you feel about that?"

"Why would you care how I feel about it?"

"I just want to know."

"Why? So you can know if there's someone you have to be careful of?" Soren tried to keep from raising his voice, and so far he was doing quite well despite his irritation.

"Is it like that? It that the way you're going to be?"

"No. It isn't like that. Only if you make it that way."

There was another awkward silence. Lethe re-entered the main hall with Lamia in tow. "I've told Lamia here what we want to know, and she's going to sniff out what we're after," Lethe explained. Lamia went over to one of the windows and stuck her head a little ways out into the fog, and inhaled deeply, her ears twitching and swiveling all around. The cat then retracted her head from the mist and looked to her companions.

"There's just one sentinel and eight spiders," she confirmed. Then she shot Lethe a dirty look. "If you ever tell me to stick my nose in something as foul as that fog ever again, I swear, sister, I'm sewing your nose shut."

Lethe returned the glare. "Pipe down," the older sister growled. "This isn't the time or place for your bellyaching." Now Ike and Soren exchanged glances, although theirs were looks of amusement.

Nailah had not felt true sorrow in a long time; she had either not gotten close enough to someone to feel truly sad when they perished or she made sure that those few she was close to never did perish before thier time. But Shyala was an exception. Shyala was was wise and strong beyond her young years, a brave, noble soldier, and loyal, understanding friend. But now she was gone, stolen away when she was needed most and left to die, drowning in her own blood, ripped to pieces... Nailah tried to push the image of Shyala's last horrible moments from her mind.

Nailah had tried to sleep, but she couldn't bare to close her eyes for any more than a brief moment to blink. If she closed her eyes to long, she'd see Shyala, staring at her queen with eyes blinded by the venom defiling her body. But the young she-wolf's eyes still relayed a message to Nailah: _I'm sorry. I've failed. Please, forgive me. _So Nailah sat in the center of the dark bedroom. She sat on the floor, though, not on the bed. The bed was almost as hard as the floor. She stared blankly at the wall, trying not to think; if she was thinking for too long, her thoughts would wander back to Shyala.

Then, there was a knock at the door. "Are you well in there?" someone asked; the voice was Michiah's. Nailah responded only with a long sigh. "May I come in?"

"Come in," replied Nailah. "But please, close the door behind you."

The door opened and Michiah entered, closing the door behind her. She sat down beside Nailah, and for a moment the two sat in noiseless darkness. The fog obscured the sun a bit, and it was getting late now, so it was no doubt going to be pitch black that night. At last, Nailah spoke.

"How is Sothe and the rest of the Brigade doing?" the Wolf Queen asked.

"They're fairly well," Michiah replied in a friendly, but emotionless tone. "And Volug?"

"It's a bit odd. We wolves are supposed to be sociable creatures, and yet, Volug is so reserved and quiet. I suppose he is doing well. It's difficult to tell, though. You know how he is."

The two of them cracked small smiles. Neither of the smiles lasted long, though. "I know this must seem weak of me, hiding away in here and wallowing around in my grief," said Nailah half-heartedly.

"No, we all have our ways of dealing with these things. We have all lost someone close to us," Michiah replied consolingly. "You have nothing to be ashamed of."

"You may say that, but there are improper ways of dealing with something. When Hitari is faced with a problem, I must do something about. I most certainly cannot lock myself away like a frightened cub."

Michiah looked like she was going to say something, but then decided against it. Nailah sighed again. Suddenly, something tapped repeatedly on the roof! One of the spiders must have been on the roof of the building. The two became alert for a few moments, but calmed themselves after a short while- although they still remained somewhat alert. Then, Nailah stood up.

"I'm not doing Shyala any favors by sitting in the dark. What are the others doing?"

"Remember that creature we encountered on the way here? It seems to be helping the spiders," explained Michiah. "It is outside keeping us in here."

"Have you told anyone about our own findings?"

"Not yet. But now would be an excellent time to do so."


	16. Chapter 16

_This one seems to be going on a bit longer than I originally thought. Don't worry, though, it won't drag on as long as _Satano-Snakes. _So here's some more _Green Spider _for you. If you like it or have something you want to say, please leave a review._

_--_

After the incident in the main hall with Ike, Soren retreated back to his office to do some reading. Many times as he looked over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't being followed. He shut the office door behind him and sat at his desk, on which, laid open to the page of Brakawl, was the usual tome. Soren resumed reading where he last left off.

Although he focused intently on the writing, but Soren's mind constantly wandered back to his argument with Ike. The sage was growing tired of that conflict, and did not plan to bring it up again unless someone else did first. He had come to the conclusion that whoever Ike wanted to love, whether it was a human being, a beast, or something in between, was his own business. Besides, there were bigger things to worry about now.

Soren kept his focus on the text. But lately, whenever he became concentrated hard on something, something else would come along and break his concentration. The doorknob turned suddenly and in walked Lamia, shutting the door behind her.

"You do know you're supposed to knock and ask for permission first, right?" Soren asked irritably. He was about to elaborate, but he saw the look on Lamia's face at hearing the words "ask for permission". "Never mind," he added quickly. "What do you want?"

"I can smell it on you," Lamia said cryptically and matter-of-factly.

"Smell what?"

"The spider's scent. It's all over you. It's on you breath and skin. It's all over this room. Start talking. Now."

Soren gave no response. He should have foreseen this. He still got some satisfaction, however, from how long it took Lamia to notice. The cat started to slowly approach him, an angry growl rising in her throat. Then her eyes wandered to the open book on the desk.

"What's the book about?" she said more as if she were accusing Soren of something than simply asking him a question.

"It's about the spiders," Soren confessed, knowing there was no point in trying to cover himself now.

"Read it to me," Lamia ordered. Soren did so. He read the entire entry on Brakawl to her, occasionally stopping to impatiently explain what a word or phrase meant to her.

"Why haven't you told the others?" the cat asked after Soren finished reading. Then a look of realization crossed her face. "You have something to do with it! You didn't want anyone to know that this is your fault!"

"I didn't know it would go this far."

"How could you not?! You're supposed to be the smart one! You knew this would happen!"

Soren slammed his hands down on his desk, standing up from his chair and glaring at Lamia. "I did not know, damn it, I did not know this would happen!" he shouted! Lamia responded by clamping one hand over his mouth and wrapping another around his throat. She pulled him closer to herself and looked him in the eye, returning his glare.

"Fine. Whether you knew it would happen or not, this is still on you," she growled angrily. Then her voice and expression softened slightly. "But that's something we can argue about later. For now, you've got to tell everyone else what you told me."

So Soren and Lamia went out into the main hall, where the others were discussing something Nailah and Michiah had brought up. The sage brought everyone's attention to himself and told them of everything the book had said of Brakawl. Michiah cringed slightly at the mention of the spider's name. However, she still found Soren's description of the demon and his abilities to be very interesting.

"That explains the sentinel! There were ten demons inside it when Nailah and I encountered it on our way here," Michiah added. "Now there is only one inside it; the rest are the smaller spiders."

"Precisely," concurred Soren.

Nailah removed a small, bejeweled bracelet from her ankle and held it up. "I knew I had all of this with me for some good reason," she said. "We shall leave some of this somewhere and set up an ambush, yes?"

"Indeed. We'll need to be getting to work on that plan soon."

The conversation would have gone on longer. But suddenly, something outside began to frantically pound on the door! Something screamed "Let me in" outside, something that sounded almost identical to a man's voice.

--

_Dang, I've been really lazy lately. But the next chapter's going to be big,guaranteed. If you enjoy the fic so far, please favorite or leave a review._


	17. Chapter 17

The pounding on the door was hard and frenzied. The man's screaming outside was loud and panicked. "Let me in!" he shouted. "Damn it, Ike, let me in!"

Nailah cast Ike a look that was hard to read. "Were you expecting someone to return so soon?" she asked in a tone that, like her gaze and face, was hard to decipher for emotion.

"I wasn't expecting anyone," Ike responded. "But whoever it is out there made it past the sentinel, so he might be able to help us."

"Hurry! Open this damned door!" the man outside shrieked as a hellish chorus of hissing and chirring joined his voice. A blade was drawn and many sharp objects scraped loudly against a metal surface. The man's screams intensified until no words could be made out among the agonized noises he made! Ike tried to pull the door open, but it held fast!

"Let me in!" the man outside managed to shout weakly- or rather, gurgle loudly. His mouth sounded to be filled with liquid, most likely blood. "It's Zelgius! Let me in!" Ike froze up; Zelgius! The mighty general of Begnion, Zelgius, was outside his door, being eaten alive!

"What are you waiting for? Let him in!" Soren exclaimed. "We need all the help we can get!"

"Leave the scum out there!" hissed Lethe. Ike often suspected that she hated every nation in Tellius (save for Gallia), Daein and Begnion most of all, and that was likely not far from the truth.

Ike opted to follow Soren's order. He loved Lethe, but she was no strategist, and Soren was right; if Zelgius was still in one piece by the time they got him in here, he could turn the tide of this fight. He kicked open the door, and there was Zelgius, covered in four of the smaller spiders, tearing at his armor and chewing the flesh off of his face and hands! The general of Begnion stilled squirmed and screamed, but he wasn't going to last long. Ike drew his own blade and felled the quartet of arachnids with one might blow, coating the doors, floor- and Zelgius- with thier blood and entrails! Once thier final screams of death died down, Zelgius looked up at Ike- or at least he looked up in Ike's general direction. His eyes had been clawed out, now bloody pulps in one of the now-dead spider's mandibles.

"Take this..." Zelgius wheezed faintly, raising an open hand to the sky. In his gore-soaked palm was a small golden trinket shaped like a crescent moon. "You'll need it... I killed three of them on my way here... But there... are still more..." Then Zelgius, the powerful and tactful warrior of the Begnion fallen empire, the beloved war hero whose mind was lost to some terrible unholy force, faded away into eternity. Ike took the item from his hand and went back inside, shutting the doors behind him. The others were close enough to hear what had happened.

"What did he give you?" Michiah asked.

Ike extended his hand to her, letting her examine the trinket. "I don't suppose you'd know what this is, would you?"

"Oh yes, I know what this is," Michiah replied. "It's a charm designed to repel lesser demons, although it didn't seem to work particularly well..." She cast a glance to the puddle of blood that could be seen trickling into the hall from under the doors.

"It protected him from the sentinel, so it can't be completely useless," interjected Ike.

"Indeed, but it didn't keep the spiders off of him," Soren reminded him.

"But there's only three spiders left, and as long as we're smart and wary the little ones aren't too much trouble," countered Nailah. "We can use the charm to get close enough to the sentinel to disable or destroy it somehow, and then plan from there."

"That isn't a bad idea. However, how do we deal with the sentinel? And how can we be sure that the charm does indeed render it harmless?" contemplated Soren.

"Wait a minute," Lethe suddenly blurted.

"Would it kill you to hold your tongue for just a moment?" Soren cut her off.

"I could ask you the same thing," growled Lethe in response. "Where's Lamia?"

Indeed, Lamia was not in the hall with the rest of them. She had slipped away back into the corridors after leading Soren there.

"She's probably gone back to bed, the fool," said Lethe with a tone on the verge of either lament or contempt. "I'll have a look around for her. Fill me in on whatever you come up with when you get back." With that, the cat was off to find her sibling.

"The spiders are attracted to treasure, and here we have a very fetching little piece of treasure indeed," summarized Nailah. "The charm could serve the double purpose of disabling the sentinel and luring the spiders into a trap, yes?"

"That could work. But again, we aren't sure the charm actually does anything," argued Soren.

"There weren't explosions like when the sentinel was attacking Ike when Zelgius came with the charm, if I recall correctly," inputted Michiah. "It was not attacking him. The charm works. We can count on it. It didn't repel the spiders because they were not lesser demons. Brakawl made them powerful."

"If that's settled," announced Ike, "then we'd best get to work on planning that ambush."

It was almost night. The halls and rooms of the building were dark, which would pose a problem for beorc. But Lethe was better equipped. There was once a time long ago when someone- likely Mordecai- told her not to let her natural laguz abilities cloud her mind with delusions of superiority over the beorc, but even now, when she was quite familiar with beorc and no longer hated them, she still saw no point in even trying to be modest about her evolutionary superiority over them. Soon, Lethe found her sister exactly where she expected to; curled up asleep beneath the blankets in one of the quarters.

"Why can't you ever pay attention to anything other than your own wants?" the older sibling asked deliberately loudly and rudely. Lamia awoke, poking her head out from under the covers to glare at Lethe.

"It wasn't like they needed me there. I'm not a tactician," the younger cat hissed, dazed and tired. She had been in a deep sleep, and she so hated to have her naps interrupted.

"How can you be so lazy? It's a wonder you haven't fallen dead asleep in the heat of battle yet!"

"I'm not lazy! At least not when I absolutely need to be awake."

"Now is one of the times when you need to be alert! The spiders could find a way in here at any moment! They could be looking for a way into here right now! For we know, they already ARE in here!"

As Lethe spoke, Lamia focused not on her voice but the sounds of something scuttling around under the floorboards beneath her feet. A grimly familiar smell was slowly filling the room. Then, as if to prove Lethe's point, four long, blade-like legs shot out of the floor followed by a hissing head covered in unblinking eyes and drooling mandibles, grabbing and snapping at her ankles!

-------------------------------

_Tedious cliffhanger out of nowhere! I have to keep the suspense SOMEHOW, don't I?_

_If you like the story so far or have something you'd like to say, feel free to leave a review. More on the way!_

_Jeebus, only 1400 words and that's my idea of major (I said in the previous chapter that this one would be MAJOR FOR SERIOUS)? I really HAVE gotten lazy! I need a break..._


	18. Chapter 18

_Since I'm not retiring from fan fiction yet and this story is nearing its conclusion, I've started planning a new FE fic. However, it's only the early stages of planning so all I can tell you thus far is that it will contain only my own original characters and will introduce one last new species of laguz. And no, it will not be more dinosaurs. No more dino-people. _

_Enjoy chapter 18!_

_------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Not a single individual in the building failed to hear the spider's surprise attack. Although Lethe was ensnared in its grabbing legs for a moment, she quickly struggled free and prepared her counterattack, while Lamia also prepared to strike. The attacking arachnid fell back down its hole and scuttled away into the dark. Ike came just a split second too late to see the monster flee. But he already knew that another siege was beginning; that much was obvious from how deceptively easily this ambush was fought off. The spider could be heard crawling around under the floorboards as it scrapped against the wood and dirt and hissed and chittered, heading out into the hallway. This racket was also very audible.

While Soren and Nailah were preoccupied with the looming threat of that spider bursting out of the floor at them, Michiah focused on other things. Concentrating hard, she foresaw the next strike. "That spider will now retreat," she announced. "But another one will come in through Ike's quarters."

"I'm on it!" Nailah, who had been in wolf form since the first shattering wooden planks, was off down the hallway to Ike's quarters. Michiah's predictions had not been wrong yet. The Silver-Haired Maiden refocused her foresight; there was a limit to her premonitions, but she had learned these limits and how to work around them. Then, she faltered a bit, wondering if the vision now in her head was wrong. She looked out of the main hall's windows; the sentinel's towering silhouette could no longer be seen in the fog, but a large, square-shaped object was slowly approaching. The vision was true! Without a word, she backed away from the window, grabbed Soren by the arm, and fled down the hallway!

The thing approaching from the fog rammed into the doors of the hall, smashing through the walls! It appeared to be a huge chunk of wood and steel rolling forward by its own power on a row of logs, a ballista attached to the top of it. Soren couldn't help but stop in the hall and stare back at it, despite Michiah trying to drag him onwards. A mobile ballista? No, it was falling apart and then reforming into the shape of a giant of wood and steel, that weapon on its back now attached to its arm and pointed right at them! Soren now willingly fled with Michiah.

The headquarters were alive this dark night with a symphony of the attackers chittering and scraping, crunching and groaning as they moved, and the frantic shouts of the defenders. The main hall was lost, buckling and collapsing down upon the intruding sentinel. As Michiah predicted, another spider had attempted invade through the bedroom window, but just as it crawled down the wall onto the floor, Nailah pounced upon it and tore it to pieces. The monster's blood tasted bitter, stinging her mouth, and smelled not until burning hair. Summoned by the cries of her allies, the Wolf Queen spat the gore from her mouth and joined Michiah and Soren in the hall as a huge metal hand clawed at them!

The trio hastily crowded themselves into Soren's office, out of the sentinel's reach. However, as they entered the room, Soren slamming the door shut behind them, Nailah was quick to point out a spider crawling out of a hole bored in the ceiling. In turn, Michiah was quick to shoot it down with a blast of Ellight, knocking it down to a sizzling green heap on the floor. Something slowly, but loudly, rapped on the wooden door; no doubt the sentinel huge hand trying to awkwardly smash its way in, and as the door began to crack and fall off its hinges, it looked to be succeeding.

It would have been impossible for Ike and the cats not too notice the giant's arm reaching down the hallway. Raising his blade and bringing it down fast and hard upon the sentinel's shoulder, Ike went to work on hacking off its arm. Withdrawing the limb under attack, the colossus was warded off, for the while. Lamia had stuck her head into the hole from which the now-dead spider attacked, ears, nose, eyes, and whiskers on full alert. Fog was already seeping into the room from the hole; it obviously lead outside. With little to no thought, Lamia jumped down into the hole and followed it to the blackness outside. Lethe and Ike soon followed after exchanging looks expressing mild bewilderment at the younger cat's silent impulsiveness.

It was cold and dark in the misty night air. The laguz gracefully leaped out from the hole onto the dying, yellow grass, and after a moment, the beorc clumsily climbed out of the pit after them. The sentinel was pulling itself out of the wreckage, rearing up and scanning the ground looking for them. Instead, it noticed Soren sneaking out of the hallway, just barely visible in the wreckage of the great hall.

Michiah had sent him to look to see if the attacker was still present while Nailah stood by to dig through the floor to make an emergency escape if need be. It seemed an emergency escape would be necessary indeed as Soren and the behemoth locked eyes. The sage was about to retreat back into the office when the sentinel raised its weaponized arm, the ballista pointed at Ike, Lethe, and Lamia! It did not fire, however. It only stared down at the mortified Soren, looking at him as if to say, "Go ahead. Make the first move." It was waiting for him to do something, he knew it. But what? Perhaps an excuse? Had Brakawl given it instructions not to kill them? Regardless, Soren also knew that he was buying the others time to escape, time they were making good use of as they made thier way through the murky air to the back of the headquarters.

Or maybe the sentinel was waiting for something? Did it give Soren a few moments to accomplish some untold task before it attacked? That seemed the case; it fired the ballista at the fleeing trio! Four feet of wood, metal, and arching electricity was flying at them like a thundering bird of prey! Soren shouted at them to get down, although he wasn't sure if they could hear him. He could scarcely see them through the black fog, and couldn't hear them at all. If that would fail, then he'd have to try something else. It was a very odd feeling; everything seemed to moving in slow-motion, giving the sage plenty of time to summon a gust of wind powerful enough to knock the projectile off course and send it spiraling harmlessly away from its intended targets.

But this would not dissuade the titan. It began to walk, step by heavy, earth-shaking step, towards Ike and the cats, moving with surprising speed! But they were faster. They had to know it was coming for them, they could feel the earth quaking from its weight as it ran. They had a head start. They could make it!

Then, one of the cats stood up in human form. This slowed her down a bit, but she could still escape. But then- what was this? She stumbled and tripped. And the laguz criticize beorc for being clumsy. Soren would have cracked a small smile at the comic irony of it, when he heard something, a faint voice, a scream- Lamia's scream- as the sentinel loomed over her, a hand open and outstretched to grab her as it bent down over her! Lethe and Ike, not them or thier black silhouettes were anywhere to be seen. There was just the shadowy forms of the sentinel and Lamia writhing and screaming, held tightly in its wooden hand as it lumbered off into the distance, fading away into the fog.

Again, everything began to move in slow motion. Soren began to run after them, when he was stopped in his track, held back and restrained by something behind him. Upon closer inspection, he saw that his robe was caught on a broken log protruding from the ruins of the hall. No problem, Soren simply struggled out of his outermost robe; he was wearing at least two more under that one, although they weren't as long and showy. Now he resumed the chase, running after the monster. He shouted at it to release its captive, to let her go, but he knew no one could hear or understand his hoarse wailing.

After a few moments that seemed to last an eternity, Soren came to a wheezing, panting stop. He sank to his knees, staring out into the fog. He was alone. The spiders were gone, Ike and Lethe were gone, Michiah and Nailah were gone, the sentinel was gone, and worst of all, Lamia was gone.


	19. Chapter 19

Soren kneeled in the dark for a long while. Everything seemed still and silent. He couldn't see anything around him. The darkness kept him blind. He could hear nothing; it was like he was lost floating in a sea of black. Usually he operated completely on logic. Rarely did emotion take over. Why should he care if Lamia was abducted? She was weak and stupid, almost completely useless. Why was he so mortified that she was taken? Why did he try to rush to her aid so abruptly? He did not think the action through at all, he simply did it, spurred by some wild, blind feeling. He tried to understand this feeling, but oddly, he could not even begin to comprehend it.

Then came a thought, another one coming from the heart rather than the mind: _I have to go after her. I have to find her and bring her back safely. _Normally, Soren's mind would have argued this thought, but now it had no opinion. His heart had full control of him this time, and as much as he wanted to protest it, at the same time he _did _want to go after Lamia. He _did _want to rescue her. His thoughts wandered back to the fate that befell Shyala.

The image forced its way into Soren's head; a pack of spiders surrounding Lamia and swarming over her, pulling her to the ground and sinking thier fangs into her. They tore at her skin and clothes and gouged at her eyes. They did thier grisly work with such ravenous speed and vigor that the helpless feline scarcely had time to scream, but she still futilely tried to cry out for help. A long, choked gurgling was all that escaped her mouth as she was ripped apart and eaten alive. Suddenly feeling ill, Soren fought back the vision of horror and stood up on shaking legs. That would not happen. He would not allow it.

Besides, there was only one spider left; Brakawl himself, and he had no more lesser demons to convert into his own image. But Soren still shuddered at the thought of what the biggest and most powerful of these creatures could do to his victims. The sage conjured a ball of brightly burning fire in the palm of his right hand. He held the flame up and away from his face, lighting the way ahead, and followed the small craters left in the earth left by the sentinel's massive feet. He followed this trail deep into the web-covered woods, where everything was also deathly still, unsettlingly silent. He followed the trail to the wide, black mouth of a deep cave bored into the foot of a huge rocky outcrop.

Soren gently launched the ball of fire in his hand in the cave to see what was within; the fire fell to the ground and fizzled a bit before burning out. It revealed hardly anything. Conjuring another fireball, he stepped slowly and cautiously into the cave and walked forward into the abyss. The hard rock floor gently sloped downward a few meters before becoming flat again. Soren could see a faint blue light up ahead; the tunnel he now walked led into a large chamber, the floor coated with a thin layer of mist and blue-glowing fungi covering the jagged rock walls. Stepping into the chamber, Soren saw the sentinel laying immobile and inactive against the southern wall of the chamber, on the opposite side of the room from the path the sage entered from.

Being able to see quite clearly now, Soren let the fire fizzle out in his hand. He inched closer and closer to the sentinel, in case it suddenly sprang back to life. It did not; and lying unconscious in the fog only a few feet away from the construct was Lamia, completely unharmed. Soren knelt down over her, gently putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Lamia," he called her in a hushed voice. "Wake up, Lamia." The cat stirred, and then slowly awakened, opening her eyes and looking up at him.

"Soren...?" she whispered back at him. "You... You came to... To rescue me?"

"I did," the sage confirmed, feeling like he wanted to say more but unsure of what to say. There was silence- an uncomfortable silence for Soren- as the two were caught in each other's gaze. Then suddenly, Lamia sprang up and threw her arms around her rescuer's neck.

"I was so scared!" Lamia mewled in a meek, frightened voice, squeezing Soren tightly. The sage wanted to struggled out of her embrace, but she was strong for such a small girl and failing his escape, he awkwardly wrapped his arms around her, hoping that would tempt her to loosen her grip. She did not, however. Even worse, Soren found himself not at all uncomfortable with the feeling of her in his arms. He didn't even mind her purring; not that he enjoyed that particular detail, but he could definitely get used to the hugging.

Then, Lamia's ears perked up. "Behind you!" she exclaimed, releasing Soren and backing away from him. Soren looked over his shoulder; scuttling towards him through the mist was a low, skinny green shape just under the fog blanket. Brakawl did have one last demon at his disposal; the one in the sentinel. But that one would not help him. As the last minion spider came closer, Soren conjured a windstorm that not only displaced all the fog from the ground and dispersed it high into the air, but also threw the spider across the room into a rocky wall, where is splattered against the stones and fungus.

Once the winds calmed down, Lamia pounced joyously upon Soren again. It was odd to Soren that she'd be so affectionate all of a sudden, but then again he wasn't being entirely logical himself right now. Slowly, the fog drifted back down to the ground; but it did not do so as it should have. It all gathered into a huge ball floating just above the ground that in turn shaped itself into a tall, white, humanoid figure. It drifted down until the figure's feet were on the ground, and out of the fog cocoon stepped a person clad in a heavy white robe with a metal, sapphire mask over his face.

"Have you ever heard the tale of Iceheart?" the robed man asked as he stood staring at Soren and Lamia.

"I have," replied Soren.

"And you know of Brakawl, I know that," the figure assumed. "Iceheart is the forgotten saviour of Tellius, and Brakawl is the forgotten tyrant ruler of days long passed. And yet, Iceheart came to the Wolf Queen in a dream and told her to lure Vazelesqos into a place where he would be mortally wounded, his dying body providing Brakawl with enough sustenance to become immensely powerful and unleash hell upon Tellius."

Soren pieced it together at once. Lamia sat behind the sage, completely lost and showing it with her blank stare.

"I know all this because I am Iceheart," the white figure continued. "Or am I Brakawl? Calling me either would suffice; they and I are all one and the same. I am nearly powerful enough to unleash my full power, Soren. You have helped me greatly, but I ask your assistance with this last, simple task. I will make it worth your while."

"I will not have any part in this," Soren spat at Brakawl.

"There was so much pain and torment in your heart inflicted by pain you suffered in your youth," Brakawl went on, ignoring Soren's refusal. "I had tried Zelgius before you, as he was greatly tortured by the devastation of Begnion. But as wise and brave and strong as Zelgius was, his mind was not secure. I drove him mad, but he served his purpose and thus I could dispose of him before he regained his senses and turned on me. Your mind is not so weak as his."

"Don't bother going on. I will not help you," replied Soren as he fought his anger down. "I will fight you until the end if need be."

Brakawl looked over Soren's shoulder at Lamia with emerald green eyes staring out of the eyeholes in the mask. "I need only one more victim before I can truly begin my new conquest," the demon said wistfully, as if he were lost in some fantasy. "Give me that girl."

"Give you the girl?"

"Yes. That laguz girl hiding behind you. Surrender her to me so I can feed upon her and regain more of my lost strength. You are not fond of laguz, are you not? What is one less to you? Let me have her. I will make it worth your while."

Lamia let out a sort of choked, horrified mewl. She cowered behind Soren, begging the sage not to let Brakawl harm her. Soren held his ground, saying nothing to either her nor the demon before him.

"Do not be unreasonable, Soren," Brakawl said impatiently. "All you have to do is step aside and let me have the girl. Do this, and I will give you whatever you desire. Immortality, wealth, power- real women- it shall all be yours, should you wish it."

"Go back to whatever pit spat you out," was Soren's reply.

"If you will be like that, very well," chuffed Brakawl. "I shall take you both." Both his robe and his mask turned emerald green while his eyes turned sapphire blue. The robe hardened and tightened its fit to his body while four more arms sprouted from his ribs. Soren and Lamia watched in a horrified, disgusted daze as Brakawl's eight limbs stretched and contorted into long, spindly spider legs! The robe was now hardened into a think, metal-like exoskeleton, the dragging tail of it now the rear of the spider. The mask had spread out and covered Brakawl's entire head, the eyeholes multiplying along with the eyes, until there were eight holes all over the head that eight sapphire eyes bulged grossly out of. The transformation appeared complete as a huge- it had to be at least 40 feet tall and 60 feet long- arachnid towered over the two mortals, looking down at them and opening its four fang-lined mandibles to reveal a drooling mouth filled with sword-like teeth, that in turn opened up to reveal another, virtically-slanted mouth filled with more long, sharp teeth behind it!

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_We're in the end stretch now; only two or three chapters left from here. If you have something to say or if you pointed out some flaws in grammar or structure, feel free to leave a review. I hope you're enjoying the story so far! More on the way!_

_And if you're wondering why Lethe hasn't been doing any musing lately, I fired her. The reason why, I'll leave to your imagination, because I'd really be in some deep shit with her if I told you._


	20. Chapter 20

_Two things that started as a joke that I came up with when I was under some kind of mind-warping influence have grown out of control. These two things are my Monster Emblem fics, as I now call them rather than "creature feature fics", and the pairing of SorenXLamia/Lyre/Whatever the hell you want to call her. Monster Emblem is still something I like, even though this is the last one of those I'll ever write, but the SorenXLyre business didn't come around until I was talking to a friend on IM and he said, "You know what I wanna see? A SorenXLyre fic, just to see her annoy the shit out of him." I was like "That's a stupid, impossible crack pairing, but it's kind of funny so I'll use it in my next creature feature fic." And now the pairing has grown on me. In fact, now I'm considering writing a quick drabble based around said pairing._

_What do you guys think of SorenXLyre? So idiotic and improbable that you won't even entertain the idea, or kind of cute and humorous? Nevertheless, here's more _Green Spider.

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Brakawl loomed high over Soren and Lamia, opening his mandibles to bear his two rows of fangs. The spider looked down upon them, drawing closer and closer, step by heavy, thudding step. Lamia hid first behind Soren, staring with wide, frightened eyes at the monster from over his shoulder. Then she shrank away and nestled herself into the remains of the sentinel laying behind the two, burrowing herself past the stiff arm and cowering just below the steel ribs.

"Don't just stand there, do something!" the cat ordered.

"I can't fight this thing alone!" Soren shot back at her. "Come out here and help me!"

"I can't fight! I don't even like fighting! I only joined the Gallian army so I could get a chance at snogging Captain Ranulf!" she mewled pathetically. "Just summon a meteor shower and blow it up or something!"

"Figures," Soren growled under his breath as he looked back at the slowly approaching Brakawl. "Stupid cat..."

"I heard that!"

Conjuring a spinning halo of flames that first circled his feet and then rose above his head and merged into a large, pulsating ball of flame, Soren launched the projectile in the spider's face. Brakawl was hit dead-on, and stumbled backwards a bit, screeching and shrieking an unearthly, ear-splitting roar as he shook the embers and ashes off of his head. Other than stunning him down for a moment and leaving a black singe mark in between his eyes, the blast of Elfire seemed to have done little damage. Brakawl continued his advance, with more speed and vigor now. Soren threw himself out of the way of one of the demon's tree trunk-like legs as it came down upon him, just narrowly avoiding being crushed. However, though he had gotten one good hit in and saved his own hide, he had left Lamia wide open for attack. He heard her scream as Brakawl thrust his head into her hiding place and pulled her out!

Lamia dangled by her tail from Brakawl's mandibles, screaming for salvation. "Help me!" she pleaded. "Soren, get up and help me!" The sage summoned strong gale winds that swirled all around the chamber, making the spider wobble on his many stilt legs. Just as he jerked his head upwards and tossed Lamia into the air, jaws and mandibles open wide to catch and swallow her as she came down, the winds blew higher and harder. The gusts swept Lamia away from the demon's gullet, and she landed safely on the ground square on her feet as a cat should. Brakawl lunged at her again, but another blast of Elfire blindsided him, allowing Lamia to transform into cat form and flee to the tunnel from whence Soren came.

Brakawl shook the ashes and violet fluids off; the Elfire ruptured the bottom left eye on the right side of his head. He turned to look at Soren, who already had another Elfire attack ready for launch. The pulsing ball of flame floated just above his palm fully extended upwards. The monster hissed and screamed at him in rage. Soren had his own enraged response already planned and as ready as the Elfire in his hand:

"Leave her out of this! Leave all of them out of this! I'm the one who let you come this far, and I should be the only one who has to suffer for it! This is between you and me, no one else!" With that, he loosed the Elfire, but Brakawl dodged this time, weaving out of the projectile's path with newfound agility. The spider lumbered over to the tunnel, which Lamia was now far away from, and using the spinnerets on his eight legs sealed the entrance shut with a thick layer of webbing. Then he turned his attention back to the sage. The demon had accepted Soren's challenge.

Lamia ran as fast as her four legs could carry her up the dark, misty pathway through the cave. An acrid, musty stench tore its way into her nostrils and this horrible smell colliding with her sensitive senses caused a wave of nausea to wash over her like a sickening, life-draining tide. She plodded to a stop and slumped against the rocky wall, her heart pounding like a drum. She slid down to the hard earth, feeling weak and overwhelmed. Was this mist poisonous? Was it slowly killing her and the others? No, if that was the case they'd all be dead by now, even Lamia could figure that much. She was fatigued; that as all it was. So very tired... She began to slowly drift off into an exhausted sleep.

"What's that up ahead?"

"I can't get its scent; the fog is too thick here."

"It looks like... It is! It's Lamia!"

Lamia looked up, jolting wide awake. She recognized those voices; it was Ike, Nailah, and Lethe! The cat clambered to her feet as her sister, also in animal form, sprinted down the tunnel towards her. The two pounced playfully at one another, Lethe taking Lamia off guard and knocking her to the ground as always, and then they reverted to human shape and hugged each other tightly, both crying joyful tears, each overjoyed at knowing that her sister was safe and sound.

"Are you well?" Lethe questioned her younger sibling with near-hysterical urgency. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"I'm fine," answered Lamia. Lethe put her hands on her sister's cheeks, holding her head in place so they looked directly into each other's eyes.

"Next time, you stay right beside me, or you go in front of me," the elder sister commanded, her tone scolding and voice shaking. She gave her words a moment to soak in before pulling Lamia back into the joyously weeping embrace. "I'm so glad you're unharmed, I'm so glad! I've been worried sick about you!"

"Soren saved me," Lamia announced. Lethe pulled away, looking as if her sister had just spouted a load of nonsensical gibberish.

"What was that?" inquired Ike, with much surprise in his voice. "Soren? As in our Soren? He saved you?"

"Yeah, Soren came here all by himself and rescued me from the spider! He's still down there fighting it!"

Brakawl was slow despite his best efforts to pursue Soren with some semblance of speed, but Soren was no athlete either. The sage had to retreat to the cover of the sentinel's wreckage to avoid the spider's crushing legs, even though he knew it would not help much. Still, some help was any help. He covered the chamber in strong winds that slowed Brakawl down a bit, but did little more. But it did give Soren time to think.

He needed a plan, a strategy. Otherwise, he didn't stand a chance. Soren was no action hero like Ike. He had always been better suited to doing desk work and helping stronger allies defeat enemies with a premeditated plan, with contingency protocols. Now here he was, fighting a giant monster alone in a mountain cave, being forced to come up with a strategy on the spot. There was nothing here to use to his advantage. He was on his own. The only three things in the chamber were Soren himself, Brakawl, and the fallen sentinel.

The sentinel! He could surely use that somehow! The sage looked out from under its knee at the ballista on its arm. Currently loaded was a bolt glowing pale green, a cold aura around it. It was have been imbued with wind magic. The bolts were likely very powerful, and seemed to explode and unleash their respective magic when they hit something. Perhaps if Soren struck it with powerful enough fire magic, as fire magic was highly effective against wind, it would set it off. But first he'd have to get away from the blast radius, and right now Brakawl was making that impossible. The spider was lunging at the wreckage again and again, trying to get at Soren, but the sage was able to avoid the demon's jaws- just barely, but he was avoiding the teeth and mandibles.

At last, Brakawl relented, rearing back to let out a frustrated scream. Soren took the opportunity, crawling out from the sentinel's remains and running as fast as he could from the hiding place, keeping Brakawl in place with new wind storm. Once he was far enough away, he stopped, orchestrating the winds with one hand while he conjured another Elfire attack, and launched the projectile at the wind-imbued bolt in the ballista. Brakawl was surely close enough to be caught in the blast.

The Elfire hit its target, creating a green-and-red shockwave that spanned the entire room! The explosion was deafening and massive, throwing Soren down hard to the ground and consuming Brakawl in a shower of emerald and scarlet sparks! Soren was down, paralyzed and blinded for but a few moments that felt like an eternity. Once he regained his senses and mobility, he tried to stand up. He simply fell back down. He tried again, succeeding this time, and looked to where Brakawl had stood.

The sentinel was blown to burning, smoldering pieces that were strewn all around the chamber. Brakawl was still alive, also trying to get up, his back two legs blown off. His exoskeleton was covered in scorch marks and long, deep scars, but the demon was still alive and well. He glared at Soren, and screeched, and then charged recklessly! He was seemed to be faster with two legs missing, although he was clumsier, tripping and stumbling as he came. Soren had not yet regained the strength to slow the demon with another wind storm. He could only run, and in this shellshocked state he could barely move. His mind raced in a panic. He felt something else he had never felt before, but this time, Soren knew what the heart-pounding, sweat-covered emotion was: fear. Fear for his life. He was doomed; he had done all he could, but it was not enough.

Emotion. Negative emotion strengthened Brakawl, Soren recalled. By being afraid, he was making the demon stronger; he could hear the spider gaining speed and vigor. But positive emotion? Could good feelings weaken Brakawl? Soren struggled to push his fear aside- Brakawl had not caught him yet, so there was still hope of victory- and tried to think good, happy thoughts. But as one could expect, nothing was coming to him at the moment.

What about a world with no fools, where everyone was as smart as Soren? No one was an idiot, and everyone had thier heads in the right places. This was a thought that made the sage happy indeed. He looked over his shoulder. Brakawl was loosing speed and fumbling a bit. But he was still coming. But the pursuit was slow and the chamber was at least a three-quarter mile in diameter, so there was still plenty of ground to cover. There were a few tall rocky outcrops rising from the ground, and those would provide some cover, but the nearest one was about sixty feet away. Soren still changed his course to that outcrop regardless of distance, regaining felling in his legs and thus gaining speed. He was now effectively outrunning Brakawl!

But the spider was regaining his footing and resuming the chase. However, Soren already had a full plan in mind. All he had to do was weaken Brakawl a bit more and reach the outcrop. He thought about one of his few truly happy memories; the day he first met Ike when they were both still small boys. Soren was abandoned and orphaned, wandering alone in the world. He came upon a village, and being starved nearly to death, collapsed in exhaustion. He awoke a while later and looked up to see Ike and his father, Greil standing over him. Ike offered him what little was left of the apple he was eating, charity Soren gladly received. Greil took him in and clothed and fed him, asking for nothing in return but the help of Soren's brilliant mind when the boy was a bit older.

Soren looked over his shoulder again. Brakawl was shrinking down to about the size of a fully-grown tiger and slowing down even more! The demon shrieked in anger at his imminent undoing, although his once-ear-splitting screech was now little more than a somewhat noisy squeal. The outcrop was near, but Soren was becoming tired and sluggish. He was still a fair distance ahead of his pursuer, however.

Then, he tripped and fell flat on his face. Something had caught his legs and was dragging him backwards. Rolling over onto his back and looking at his feet, Soren saw that Brakawl had ensnared him with webbing and was now pulling him in! The sage tried to struggle out of the webbing, but he was unable to, and soon the spider was right on top of him. Brakawl lunged, and instinctively Soren raised an arm to protect himself. Shooting hot pain stabbed into the meat of his arm from a thousand places and quickly spread throughout his entire body! Brakawl's hundreds of fangs sunk into Soren's forearm, causing agony so unbearable that the human's scream of pain echoed all through the chamber and could even be faintly heard in the tunnel behind the web barrier.

The bite was excruciatingly painful and brought the issue of venom to Soren's mind. Spiders were often venomous; was Brakawl no exception? Were his fangs injecting thier poison at this very moment? Again came a wave of deathly fear. The spider began to slowly grow. Soren tried to ignore the pain, to refocus his mind on joyful thoughts and memories. He recounted his days with Ike as a young boy, all thier adventures and escapades, which would have been more fun had Soren been a more willing participant, but they were sufficiently happy. Brakawl stopped growing and started to shrink again, becoming as small as a large dog. He released his hold on Soren, springing back and hissing.

Pulling himself up and continuing to the rocks, leaving a trail of blood from his arm behind him as he ran, Soren became focused on carrying out his plan. The pain was almost blinding- almost. He could still see well enough to continue on his way. Brakawl followed with vigor and relentlessness that made up for his lack of speed. But he was too far behind Soren to catch up now, and Soren was close to the outcrop, which was little more than an eight-foot pile of stones loosely packed together. It could topple over at any moment, and that was exactly what the sage was counting on as he stood to the left of it.

Feeling weak and sickly, Soren summoned all his strength for one last attack. Brakawl was now in the shadow of the rock pile. It was time to strike! The sage conjured one last powerful gust of wind and directed it at the back of the outcrop! The stones began to wobble and buckle under the push of the zephyr, then they toppled down on top of Brakawl, crushing the spider beneath them!

There was silence and stillness for many moments. Then the rocks began to move as a weak chirring came out from under them. Brakawl was still alive. Soren no longer had the strength to use magic. He'd need to recount one more gleeful memory to finish the spider off. But what? Soren was not, never had been, and probably never would be a happy person. Then something came to him. He didn't want to use this one, but he had no others and the only original thought that made him happy was the world without idiots, and trying all he had previously used against Brakawl he found he needed to imagine a new source of joy every time in order for the positive emotion to further weaken the demon.

Soren reluctantly thought about when Lamia hugged him when he found her earlier. He remembered how her small body felt cradled itself against him, and how she felt in his arms when he returned the show of affection. He quite clearly recounted how warm she was as the heat of her body fought off the grip of coldness that had taken hold of him. He remembered how she gently brushed her cheek against his, and how she buried her nose in his long hair as it fell down onto his shoulders. He left out the detail of her purring, however; that would have ruined the mood.

Brakawl's chirring and struggling stopped, and the rocks settled. After yet another moment of dead silence, the spider crawled out of the rubble, no bigger than any normal spider, legs broken and exoskeleton cracked, leaving a thin trail of violet blood behind him as he scuttled slowly onto the ground below the rocks. Soren walked over to the arachnid as it futilely tried to escape, and looked down upon the creature for a moment. Then he stomped his foot down upon Brakawl, reducing the demon to a purple smear on the rocky floor and finishing him off once and for all.

He had done it. Soren had emerged victorious. He had challenged a primordial king of evil to a battle to the death, the fate of Tellius hanging in the balance, and he had won. But now he felt life and strength slipping away from him. Soren's vision blurred. His knees started to buckle. So the spider was venomous after all. He fell into a heap on the ground, deathly silent and still.

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_Don't worry, Soren isn't dead. That would be a rather lame ending, and I'm trying to improve my endings. There's still just one chapter left. If you like the story or have something you'd like to say, please leave a review._

_By the way, HOLY SHIT THIS CHAPTER IS OVER 3000 WORDS. That's the longest one I've ever written!_


	21. Chapter 21

_Here we are at the end of _Green Spider, _my final Monster Emblem fic. I will still write for _Fire Emblem, _it just won't be about monsters any more. It might be about SorenXLyre, which is just as ridiculous, but that's just how I roll. If you liked the story or have some constructive criticism I can use to improve future fics, please feel free to leave a review or PM me._

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"Looks like he's finally coming around."

"Soren? Can you hear me?"

"I hear you..." he weakly moaned in response. Soren tried to move, but found himself too stiff to do much more than turn his head a bit. He opened his eyes to see Ike and Lamia looking down on him. He looked around; they were in one of the bedrooms back in the HQ. Soren himself was in a bed. Ike was on the other side of the room, leaning against the wall, while Lamia was kneeling at his bedside, watching him intently, her expression hard to read. Ike seemed glad to see Soren awake, though. The bright, warm rays of the sun shone in through the window; the fog was clearly gone now.

"How are you feeling?" asked Ike.

"Stiff... I can hardly move... Other than that I'm alright," answered Soren.

"It took us hours to break though the barricade in the tunnel, but when we got through we found you passed out in there," Ike explained. "But we didn't find any sign of the spider. Did you kill it?"

"Yes. It wasn't easy, but I killed it," Soren confirmed.

"Job well done," complimented Ike, clearly impressed. "We brought you back here and Michiah healed you. All she did was touch the wound and it was gone instantaneously! I'd never seen anyone do that before."

"Healing with but a touch is a unique ability indeed. Michiah is a Maiden of Miracles indeed. It's almost ridiculous, what with all the abilities she has..."

Ike chuckled. "You have to analyze everything, don't you, Soren?" The sage was about to answer when Lethe entered the room, beckoning Ike away. The two left, leaving Soren alone with Lamia.

"You know what they're going to talk about, right?" said Lamia with a devious smile.

"I'm not sure I want to know," admitted Soren.

"I think Ike is going to be a father very soon," the cat continued, ignoring Soren's comment. "I've eavesdropped on a few of thier conversations. Turns out Lethe is two months along now." Her smile became more innocent. "I'm gonna be an aunt! This is so exciting!"

Soren went completely numb, sharing none of Lamia's enthusiasm. He should have known it would happen, but now here it was. It was really happening, but it seemed so surreal. He thought back tot he Cockatrice Incident three years before, when the Cleric from Magvel told him he would do something that would result in the death of an innocent, that his soul was impure, and the vision of the future the basilisk gave him. Soren's mouth became dry and his palms became sweaty. He stared blankly, a haze in his vision.

"Are you okay?" asked Lamia.

"Go get Michiah," ordered Soren frantically. "Get Michiah! Hurry!"

This command was carried out, and a very confused-looking Michiah was rushed into the room. "Er... You need my help with something...?" the Silver-Haired Maiden asked.

"I need you to look into Lethe's future seven months from now," Soren said.

"But why...?"

"Just please do it." Soren was almost pathetically pleading her now. Michiah closed her eyes and concentrated hard on some unseen goal.

"I see Lethe in Ike's bed," reported Michiah. "She has the covers wrapped around her tightly, like a cocoon. She is cradling something in her arms, something wrapped in a heavy blanket. She is looking at it quite lovingly, whatever it is. Ah, I can see it now. It's a sleeping baby! The child has the mark of the Branded upon its forehead, but Lethe does not seem at all bothered. She is exhausted; she must have given birth not long ago. Ike is entering the room alone. He is moving slowly, carefully and quietly. He must be trying not to wake the baby. Lethe looks at him and smiles. It's odd, seeing Lethe this happy. But she has the smile of someone in the happiest moment of thier life. Ike has the same smile. He kneels down next to her and looks upon the child with that same expression of lovingness. She is saying something to him in whispers..." Michiah's voice trailed off. She looked a bit tired, but she smiled. "Such a beautiful scene..."

Soren gave her a few moments to rest as she sat on the other bed opposite to the one he was in. Once she seemed to regain her pep, he had one more request. "Could you look into my future about that same time, only a few minutes later?"

"Very well..." Michiah concentrated again. "You're in your office doing paperwork. There is a knock at the door, and someone speaks on the other side. You grant them permission to answer, and Ike comes in. You ask, 'How did it go?' Ike answers, 'It's a girl, but we don't have a name for her yet'." The child was a girl. That took credibility from the basilisk's vision.

"You grab a book from the southwest corner of your desk and flip it open to a page you had bookmarked," Michiah continued. "You read the left page a bit, and then look up at Ike and say 'How about Orala?' I assume this is what you suggest the girl's name to be. Ike seems to approve. Then you say that you're happy for them, Ike and Lethe. You seem sincere. You don't smile, but you seem to truly be happy for them regardless." Michiah, again exhausted, opened her eyes and smiled.

"That's so sweet!" cooed Lamia, who had been watching these processions from the doorway, leaning against the closed door. She was obviously very excited to meet little Orala, even though the child would not be born for more than half a year from now.

"Is there anything else you shall be needing from me?" inquired Michiah.

"Yes, there is one more thing," replied Soren. "Can you check souls for impurities?" Soren realized the question must have sounded a bit silly- Lamia gave him quite the odd look- but Michiah nodded.

"Oh yes, I can do that quite easily," she said. This woman's power seemed limitless. She closed her eyes again, raising a palm in Soren's direction. Her fingers moved occasionally as if she were grabbing hold of something. Then she opened her eyes and lowered her hand. "Your soul seems to be fairly pure. Not quite as pure as freshly fallen snow, but there is nothing seriously wrong. You've no reason to worry about anything impurities in your soul. Why would you be worried about such a thing?"

Soren explained it to her as best he could. Michiah nodded slowly and said, "Any mere cleric who thinks she can judge the pureness of a soul should be suspected of something. That was a very suspicious claim of her to make, and if there were basilisks at large, she may have been nothing more than a puppet being used to spread confusion and disorder. Your soul is fine. WIll that be all?"

"Yes, that's all," said Soren. "...Thank you." He said his thanks hesitantly; it had been so long since he had thanked anyone it felt odd to do so. Michiah smiled, and Lamia moved away from the door to let her leave. Once again, it was just the sage and the cat alone.

Lamia sighed and looked out the window. "Me and Lethe are going back to Gallia for a little while," she said wistfully. "Nailah is going back to Hitari, and Michiah is heading out for Daein pretty soon. We'll all be leaving in a few minutes probably."

"Good luck with Ranulf," said Soren. Lamia smiled and giggled. Then she did one of the many things he was afraid she'd do; she came over to his bed, knelt down beside it, and hugged him tightly.

"Thanks," she said softly. "Maybe you're not such a boring old jerk after all." Lamia released him and stood up, and as she looked down upon him one more time, she giggled once again. "You're blushing again!" Soren was about to order her to get out and let him get his rest, but his mouth refused to open to let the words out, and instead curled into a thin, awkward smile.

"Try not to miss me too much!" the cat beamed as she turned the doorknob. "Good luck with your weird mage stuff. Don't be making any more monsters!" With that, Lamia opened the door, and was gone. Soren closed his eyes, feeling like such a fool. He was starting to get an idea what that strange emotion he felt was, but the more he discovered about it, the less he liked it. Or did he dislike it? He couldn't tell. The feeling confused him so that he couldn't tell if his feeling it was a good thing or bad.

Then it suddenly came back to him; Lamia's small, warm body against him in Brakawl's lair, brushing against his cheek, burying her nose in his hair, her arms around him. He still didn't much care for the purring, though.

Soren decided this feeling wasn't so bad after all.

**THE END**


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